Light In Darkness
by Dragonwiles
Summary: An evil empire exiles its prisoners underground. When the condemned claw their way back to the surface, they find monsters assaulting the land. Snippets of adventures from Avernum 1 - 3.
1. Light to Darkness

The prisoners were borne to their doom in unyielding wagons, open to the crisp mountain air. The Empire's guards were gruff and efficient, keeping their convoy in line and on time. The prisoners, including Albert and his family, were as stiff as the wagons.

Albert was relieved Mother wasn't crying as much. She had cried a lot when their family had been sentenced. Now she cried only when she and Father thought Albert and his brothers and sister weren't looking or were asleep. So that was only when they were camped for the night.

Noticing all the things he and his family wouldn't have anymore was getting exhausting. They were going where there wouldn't be any sparrows shooting through the sky. There wouldn't be the soft burbles or cold wash of mountain streams.

Albert wished he wasn't noticing any of these things. He was a lad of ten winters in a rugged land, and ought to be brave. At any other time, he'd have played with his siblings, or some of the other children in the convoy. During the journey, their convoy had received prisoners from all over the known world. Albert wanted to ask them what it was like on the other continents. However, when other children had tried to run about or play together, the guards would shove or smack them back into rigid order, barely more gentle than they were with the adults. Soon, just the stern disinterest of the guards' stares was enough to freeze anyone's heart with terror as their feet hastened back into their assigned spot. They were all doomed anyway: terror of the guards on every side, and the fate awaiting them ahead, among the mountains, chilled them all.

Albert was startled by a shout - a sentry on a wall was challenging them. Their guards answered correctly, and the convoy pressed on without missing a moment. Albert raised his eyes and saw higher on the mountain an outpost made of thick, cold stone blocks. He swallowed. The hair on his arms stood on end, but it wasn't the cold or - or anything else. The magical power coming out of the place could be felt even this far downslope.

Mother was crying again, and Father was gripping her tightly, looking up at the stone building and the Empire's soldiers stationed there. There were few dry eyes now. Father had said standing up for what was right, against the mayor himself, was worth even this. Albert hoped so.

Practiced guards unloaded each wagon was in turn when it reached the stone building. As their wagon pulled up, both Father and Albert's older brother Carl tried to help Mother off, but the guards plucked everyone off - not painfully, but with firmness. The guard's gauntlets took up Albert's sister Emma, and their younger brother Rupert would clearly be next, then Albert himself. Albert's thudding heart reminded him what he had sworn to himself and his best friend Garrett. As the guard picked up Albert, he raised his head.

He looked up, and saw the sun high in the air, framed by blue sky and white, wispy clouds -

He looked up, up, high as he could, stabbing every detail into his memory -

He looked at it, straight at the sun, and he tried to keep his eyes open like he told Garrett he would but he couldn't -

And then the stone ceiling cut it off like a stormcloud, for a guard had deposited him in the building. Albert would never know if the stinging in his eyes and the reason he was keeping them tightly shut was because of the blinding glare of the sun still dancing in spots in his eyes, or the pain of his heart.

There was a new smell in the air as the next wagon was unloaded behind him. Then there was an odd rumbling above Albert's head. He knew that sound, but it shouldn't be coming from up there - unless -

Albert looked up behind him and saw a nephilim. Garrett had been right. The face was that of a cat, even down to the whiskers. There was fur all over its body, all he could see, for its body was like a man's too, and it wore a loincloth and a dirty shirt. The nephilim was rubbing his arms and making a rumbling in the back of his throat like an angry cat while the other prisoners were queued up behind him.

The nephilim glared down at Albert and snarled, "Stop gaping, furless." It then made a hacking sound.

A guard gave the nephilim a brutal blow with the butt of his spear. This was beyond any blow yet given to a prisoner. The nephilim yowled as he reeled, then staggered up when he sensed the guard coming in for another blow. The nephilim, with unsteady steps, hurried after Albert and the prisoners before them, as they all began to move deeper into the building.

Albert suddenly recalled Garrett having told him that the Empire had actually rounded up all the nephilim and shipped them down to Avernum. Before, merely surviving the trip down into the earth was a mere, slim, almost inconceivable chance of survival. Now he considered for the first time survival beyond those first moments, and what it would be like to live with such angry creatures as neighbors, and upon him came a bitterness of soul. Perhaps even such survival would be a death; a slow, painful, death.

There was a loud, solemn voice booming through the structure as the guards watched and silently prodded the prisoners along. Albert realized as he got closer the man must be some sort of Imperial magistrate, for he was reading something very like what the judge had said when sentencing his family:

"For treason, for murder, for theft…"

Albert had seen the unnatural light on the walls and ceilings before, but he could finally see its source, even over everyone's heads: the dread portal that would claim them.

"For speaking insolence to your betters, for denying the wisdom of dread Emperor Hawthorne and his servants, for spreading dissension in your cities, for pursuit of unauthorized magics, for necromancy…"

There were only ten people ahead of them. One after another was being forced into the portal, thrown in by the guards if they had to be. Albert was ashamed of his shortened breath. No one had ever returned, so these might be his last moments. He didn't want to die a coward.

"For these crimes you are sentenced to permanent exile in the caves of Avernum. You are outside of the Emperor's protection now. Judgment is passed."

Father took Mother and Emma's hand, Mother took his older brother's hand, his older brother took Albert's hand, and Albert took his younger brother's hand, and they stepped through the portal, single file.

Eyes full of unnatural light, guts twisted out of shape, and soles of his feet feeling no floor, he was sure the rumors were true: that the portal didn't really work and you were simply killed.

But then he opened his eyes and stepped with his siblings on dirt, into a world that was cool and barely lit, and dread filtered into him. It was the other rumors that were true. The rumors of a short life scratched out of rock, surrounded by unseen horrors.

Then a man's kind voice was talking to them: "My name is Tor. Welcome to Avernum. You're in Fort Avernum, and you can rest here tonight, under the protection of the Kingdom of Avernum."

Mother finally broke down into long, wailing sobs. Albert could see well enough to know Father was rubbing her back and trying to say something to her, but Albert couldn't tell what, because he and his siblings were bawling, too.

The nephilim behind them made a hacking noise. Albert tried to shoot it a dirty look over his shoulder, but wasn't sure it could be seen in the portal's flickering light.

The last of the prisoners came through the portal. It was set in a wide, open square, so there was room for everyone. Some were shifting from foot to foot, sobbing. One or two kissed the ground. Many seemed transfixed by what Tor was saying, and were waiting in their original places in line behind them.

Tor told Mother, "There, now, ma'am. I know. But it is possible to make a life here. One of my jobs is to make sure of that. By decree of King Micah of Avernum, everyone gets a gift here, to help you start anew. A stone knife, and five coins."

He handed just that to all of their family. Mother seemed anxious when he handed them to Emma. Albert didn't know why, since she was almost as old as Carl, but Albert and his mother had never seen eye-to-eye about knives, even though Mother used plenty when making dinner. In any event, Tor said quietly, "Everyone, ma'am. It's the law."

Father said as Emma took them, "Then it's true. It's dangerous here."

"That's why we have an army, and law," Tor agreed. "We also have businesses, and farms, and homes. Your family can live, just as many others have. Here in Avernum, you are free. But if you'll take my advice, stay in the fort the next few nights, and find a job. When you're ready, go with a caravan to a city, and don't travel on your own until you know the roads and the monsters."

The ceiling and some of the moss was glowing - that was why they could see, Albert realized, after he caught his brother staring at some of the glow. There were some strange, spindly things dotted around the square, and as his eyes got more used to the light, he realized they were some sort of sickly tree. Well, there wasn't any real light - it was impressive they were there at all. Maybe they were magical, too.

Father practically had to pry Mother away from a tearful thanking of Tor, though Albert wasn't quite sure yet how much they had to be happy about. But it was true, if that kind man and this city were here, things couldn't be all bad. And Tor had found him a knife that fit just right in his hand. It felt as though it belonged, somehow. Of course, he'd felt that way about all the sticks they'd found back home when playing army, too.

Finally they had stopped holding up the line, to his older brother Carl's relief, and they started walking to the end of the square, exploring this first part of their new home.

* * *

Leafloss 21, 815 I. E. (Imperial Era)

2 Years Before Albert's Exile

Fort Avernum

Nathan stumbled out of the portal; the guard had carelessly pushed him through. He had been last in line, and they were probably tired.

Staring up and around, he tried to get his bearings, but thoughts and hopes and fears kept surging in Nathan's chest. He was alive, but with no money, no food, and no arms, how long would he stay that way?

He nearly jumped when a voice came out of the dark saying, "Step forward, friend. You seem to be the last, but sometimes being near the portal makes people feel ill. You won't need its light much longer, we have our own light here. I'm Tor. Welcome to Avernum."

"Avernum? So we're really in a cave?" Nathan asked. He felt foolish - everyone knew that, but his mouth seemed to have moved on its own.

"Yes, we are, miles below the surface, and with no exit," Tor agreed wryly, "but look at the good part - this is the last place left in the whole world not under the Empire's thumb!"

Nathan drew back in surprise, but Tor just grinned at him, saying, "Oh, I know, I should be careful. I could get thrown into Avernum for talking like that!" Nathan chuckled, then smiled fully back after a long moment.

"So, here are some things to help you start your new life, just like all the other new arrivals," Tor continued. "A stone knife, and five coins."

Nathan looked down at his hands, holding the items, stupefied. "What good will that do me? I mean, uh, sorry, I thank you, Tor, but-"

But Tor didn't seem put out, and he replied, "As much good as you can do with them. It's not like the surface. You're free here. Your life is now what you make of it. There is a future here. But not for those who break the law. Steal, murder - you'll get thrown into the Abyss. The gift is to keep you from desperation, but we're a poor kingdom, so after this, you'll have to earn everything with your own two hands."

Nathan let that sink in. "The Abyss?" he finally asked.

"Not an actual chasm," Tor clarified, "but a series of caves separated from us by a chasm, and a fort. We have our problems, our monsters, but the Abyss? The surface's rumors are true in that place. More monsters. No law, but what petty despots enforce. Worse soil."

One former prisoner, the only one who hadn't already wandered away, abruptly asked, "Just like the Empire, then?" Tor and Nathan turned towards him, and the man continued, "Toss out anyone you don't like?"

Tor's tone hardened slightly as he answered, "Sometimes we kill the criminals, especially if we can't take them alive, to a trial. The Abyss is our way of showing mercy. There are similarities to what the Empire does. But King Micah isn't like Hawthorne. And the Abyss is one of the few things keeping us all from turning on each other. Enough men get hungry and become brigands as it is. We need something to punish evil and reward good.

"Anyway, be careful. And make something worthwhile of your new life. There are odd jobs here in the fort until you figure out something to do."

"Thank you, sir," Nathan told Tor, and hurried away. His heart sank as he realized the other former prisoner was following him.

When the other man had followed him quite some distance, Nathan stifled a sigh, stopped at the end of the square, and turned to confront him, saying, "Tor didn't seem to take to you, did he? Surprising."

"Just like those on the surface," the other man replied. "I'm not."

"Not what?"

"Surprised," the other man supplied irritatedly.

"I don't suppose it was because of your manners?" Nathan suggested.

"You haven't introduced yourself," the other man returned coolly.

Nathan gritted his teeth and said through them, "Nathan," as he held out his hand.

The other man took it with a limp grip as he said, "Warren."

Nathan pointed out, "Why not start with a new outlook, Warren? A new way of taking on life?"

"Build a new life like that fool advised everyone with his script?" Warren asked cynically.

Nathan said tightly, "You try to talk to a hundred people and tell them everything important in a new way each time."

Warren rolled his eyes and said, "Nathan, that man looked just like the trees here."

Nathan waited.

"Thin," Warren supplied. He waited, and added pointedly, "And pale?"

Nathan gestured impatiently.

"And spindly?" Warren waited another beat, then sighed and started to say something, but Nathan interrupted, "If talking to me is such a bother, you needn't go on."

"I'd say the same to you," Warren shot back, "but I'd rather say that it's clear from those signs that there isn't much nourishment for any life down here. Tor is this society's way of preventing a riot every time the Empire dumps a bushel of crooks down here. But clearly there's next to nothing to live on. They were right on the surface. Even if you do survive the trip, it's just a long, slow, death."

"And you're satisfied with that," Nathan said in exasperation.

"Of course not," Warren said in indignation, "that's why I'm putting up with you."

"And maybe because no one else will do the same for you?" Nathan muttered.

Warren snorted and said, "I can't help it if others prefer not to discuss reality."

Nathan didn't know that he ever wanted to hear more of Warren's views on reality, so he said, "Why me, Warren?"

Warren said, "You have a bearing about you. Like the others, you don't like hearing reality. But listening to me this long means you can acknowledge the truth, and work with anyone, even annoyances, at least if they aren't trying to kill you. In short, you know how to get things done."

"If I could get things done, I wouldn't be here, would I?" Nathan said dismissively.

"Hardly. You heard of Erika and the rest, haven't you?" Warren debated. "Competency can be one of the main reasons to get thrown down here."

"That and choosing friends and enemies unwisely," Nathan said.

"Pointed subtlety," Warren said approvingly. "You're smarter than you look, too."

"This feels," Nathan muttered, "like walking into a trap."

Warren craned his neck up, gestured at the ceiling, and said grandiosely, "This is the world's greatest trap." He whipped his head down, came closer to Nathan, and gazed piercingly. "And I want to escape it."

"I think we would've heard, back on the surface, or from Tor, if someone had," Nathan told him firmly.

Warren countered, "Or maybe a few escapees managed to live in one of the Empire's less populous regions, hiding the fact that they were ever banished here. The Empire may rule all lands, but it isn't all-knowing. I don't want to go back to the Empire. I do want to go back to the surface."

"Or die trying," Nathan put in.

"That's why I'm working with you, to avoid that," Warren smiled.

"I don't know what I want," Nathan said frankly, "besides a drink."

Warren frowned. "A bad use of these five coins, but since an inn probably is one of the safest places to sleep tonight, I'll follow you still."

"You're free here," Nathan said, trying not to sound hopeful.

"It'll take more than that to get rid of me," Warren pronounced smugly.

* * *

Author's Note

When I first announced the idea for this story in "No Need for All Tenchi's Adventures," I announced it as a fanfiction of Exile 3/Avenum 3, a computer role-playing game by Spiderweb Software. Careful readers will note that while the main story, which will include Albert and other heroes, will eventually be a tale set in Avernum 3, the story of the Tamers of Avernum, Nathan, Warren, and others you'll meet later, is set in the story of Exile / Avernum, the first game in the series.

I considered writing only an Exile 3/Avernum 3 story, and writing two additional, separate stories for Exile / Avernum and the second game, Exile 2 / Avernum 2 respectively. I also considered melding the three stories into one, and may still do so in this story. For now, the first and third stories make the most sense to blend, because they both have many parallels, and affect each other in many ways. Exile 2 / Avernum 2 also significantly affects Exile 3 / Avenum 3, but it has fewer parallels.

Don't count on this story for proper adherence to canon. For example, I entirely made up (at least I think I did) "The Tamers of Avernum" as a title for the player characters of Exile / Avernum. Readers unfamiliar with the Exile or Avernum series should also note that all player characters are entirely made up by the player, from name to species to backstory. This is in sharp contrast to role playing games such as the Final Fantasy series, in which all player characters are given identities by the scenario rather than the player. It is also distinct from other Spiderweb Software games such as the Geneforge series or Avadon series, in which the main player character is completely customizable, but other player characters are given identities by the scenario. In short, most of the characters in this fanfiction are non-player characters (NPCs) and thus are from the scenario of the game (unless I stretch them too far out of character, intentionally or otherwise) while the main characters (Nathan, Warren, Albert, and others you'll meet later) are made up by me.

Beyond completely making things up, however, there are at least two other reasons why you shouldn't count on this fanfiction to accurately depict canon. One is that I am relying on memory for some points of the plot. The other is that there are occasional slight differences between Exile and Avernum. Some subplots and dungeons were added into Avernum as bonuses, and other matters were changed, especially in the spells used, but also in some points of plot.

All in all, if something appears wrong in my adherence to canon, I've most likely made a mistake, or possibly am intentionally making a change.

* * *

The following disclaimer shall be construed so as to apply to all the fanfiction. The author does not own, and does not claim to own, anything copyrighted, trademarked, or otherwise owned by anyone else. The author does not claim to own Exile or Avernum, its characters or events or jokes or concepts or dialogue, despite any usage of the above. All intellectual properties, copyrights, trademarks, and other items are the property of their respective owners.


	2. Banding Together

Remembrance 3, 832 I. E.

15 Years after Albert's Exile

Albert's Family's Farm in Avernum

Albert gesticulated with his cup, "But Mother, it's the Avernum Adventurer Corps, not the regular army."

"You needn't slosh all over the table," she said, just as she had all his childhood, on the surface and in Avernum, and produced a cloth to dry the rough cavewood.

Rupert, Albert's younger brother, teasingly agreed, "Yeah, not the regular army - so you won't get the regular meals. Just have to scrounge around a bit."

Albert grimaced at him, but he knew that the teasing was partly intended to distract their mother from her worry. He came back with, "I'll get to eat what I want when I want, yes - and better, I get some freedom to choose which missions I want to accept. And it's even less bureaucracy than usual around here. Plus, we get to keep whatever treasure and equipment we're given or find."

Mother protested, "Not the regular army, but it's still dangerous."

Emma finished the last bite of her mushroom meal bread and asked, "Yes, Mother, but how many bats did you have to have to kill in the north field just this morning?"

"Only two, and they were the little ones," she said with a sigh. "I feel bad doing it."

Rupert held up a needle, four fingers, and a smile to Albert - one of the little bats had inflicted on their mother wounds requiring four stitches this time. Rupert whisked the fingers and needle out of sight quickly, but Mother still frowned between them.

Father said, "Albert, I'm sure you'll do us all proud. All right, everyone, time for the last hug and prayer. We don't want him late for the caravan into town!"

After the last hug and prayer, just before heading out the door, Albert whispered to his mother, "I miss Carl too, Mother. He defended us all in the war. I'm not him - I need to do something different. I can't tell you I'll be safe, but I'll be doing something worthwhile, too."

She gave him a sad smile and said, "Albert, we all believe in you. I wanted to tell you to be safe, but your father said I shouldn't since you're going to be an adventurer. So I'll tell you to bring back a nice girl."

"Mother!" Albert exclaimed.

"Oh, and cute grandchildren, too," she added.

Father broke in, "The neighbors will never let us hear the end of it if we keep the caravan waiting."

And thus Albert began his greatest adventure.

* * *

Contested Caves North of Avernum

There was no wind on the surface of the dark, subterranean lake. A small finger of this lake reached out, stopping just short of silently caressing the cold stone walls of a hushed outpost. The air by the small side door of the outpost was cool, still, and clear, offering a good view of the dark lake to the guard standing outside a small side door. No ripples broke the surface of the water in the small channel, until two lizard men charged out of it, two-tined spears already transferred from the harnesses on their backs into their hands, and quickly slew the guard.

The lizard-men, properly known, of course, as members of the slithzerikai race, swiftly searched the guard's body. Breaking the surface of the water had made some noise, and the guard had been alert and had his own spear in hand, parrying the first attacker before being finished off by the second, so there would probably be a group coming to investigate soon. Finding the key, the slithzerikai opened the door of the outpost and rushed inside.

The first one stopped their charge down the hall with an uplifted hand, then gestured at a seemingly innocuous spot on the floor. The second slithzerikai quickly fished a small pair of wire-cutters out of his belt and cut the nearly invisible tripwire, disarming the trap, and the two rushed ahead.

A group of guards was inside the front gate, apparently just finished checking that the commotion hadn't come from there, and the guards stared for a moment at the silhouettes charging at them, wondering whether they were friend or foe. In the next moment, they had their spears at the ready, but the slithzerikai overpowered them with brute strength and momentum. They unbarred the front gate and tried to swing it open, but the guards outside the gate were pushing against it, keeping it shut. Both slithzerikai could hear the rest of the outpost beginning to stir, and another group of guards running down a corridor, just moments away.

From outside came two whirs, and the pressure against the doors changed from active resistance to deadweight. The slithzerikai inside pushed the gates open. The two guards outside had been slain by arrows, and had fallen against the gate.

A small company of humans, clad in armor bearing a symbol of the sun, rushed towards the now-open gate. They aimed bows for a moment at the slithzerikai, before sighing in relief. They ran past them, into the fortress, over the bodies of the guards.

More of the outpost's guards came into the entryway then, from two different directions. An enormous guard, evidently the commander, snarled at the slithzerikai who had infiltrated the outpost, "Fillthy traitorsss!"

"Throw down your weapons," the first of the slithzerikai infiltrators replied.

The guards' commander motioned ahead with his two-tined spear, and battle was joined.

At first, the guards tried to surround both the first slithzerikai infiltrator, Thass, and his student, Sschass. However, the humans with the emblem of the sun were just behind them, and so those guards were quickly cut down.

Sschass worried for a moment that the Avernite army detachment he and Thass were working with would kill them along with the wicked slithzerikai guarding this outpost, but the disciplined team checked their targets carefully, as they always had, so the irrational fear didn't last long. Sschass was free to focus on the fight.

For a few seconds, or minutes, there was desperate stabbing, parrying, and feinting in the perpetual half-light of Avernum. Sschass suddenly became aware that the front ranks of guards had fallen, but this left the guards' commander free to fight. The guards' commander stabbed forward with his two-tined spear, and one of the humans intercepted the blow with his shield. There was a loud crash as the spear stuck in the cavewood. The guards' commander yanked back on the spear, pulling the soldier off-balance. As the soldier stumbled toward him, the guards' commander pulled his spear back further, switching to a one-handed grip as the shield came within reach, and with his now-free hand grabbed the edge of the shield. The soldier tried to raise the sword in his other hand, but his stumbling feet weren't giving him the leverage he needed for a proper blow. Thass, Sschass, and the other soldiers tried to press forward to his aid, but the wicked slithzerikai guards were rallying and cutting them off.

The guards' commander lunged forward, his great height giving his head great reach, as he opened his mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth, and made for the soldier's neck.

An Avernite bowman took a quick, risky shot in the short, crowded entryway. He didn't get the guards' commander in the torso as he'd hoped, but he did score on the arm imprisoning his comrade's shield. There was a roar as the slithzerikai flinched, drawing back his clawed hand from the shield. Thass and Sschass slew their opponents, and rushed forward as the endangered soldier regained his footing. The three of them attacked the guards' commander, at head, heart, and gullet, and the guards' commander fell.

"And that's how it's done!" the formerly endangered soldier cried, and the Avernites roared, and moments later, the last wicked slithzerikai fell, and the battle was won.

After an Avernite flag was hoisted over the outpost, yellow sun emblem displayed in the windless air with the aid of small supports keeping the flag extended, the human captain shook Thass and Sschass' hands. "Excellent working with you as usual, Thass, Sschass. I always say, you're the finest in the Adventurer Corps!"

Sschass had known the captain professionally from several battles, and thought the captain's emphasis was odd, as was the way that Thass gestured with his head at Sschass before replying, "Captain Martin, we are pleased to earn honor with you. I'm only sorry we have to stop our advance here."

The captain shrugged with a smile. "Don't I know it! But, now we can intercept more slith raids into our lands, and if we ever get the soldiers and money, use this place to push further into their territory. Anyway, come on down to the fire. Mushroom merlot for our victory!"

Everyone cheered.

* * *

Three days later, Sschass and Thass walked along the road back to Gnass, their hometown, in the Great Cave of Avernum. Thass looked over quickly and said to Sschass, "It's been good fighting by your side, Sschass. You've made me proud. I'm sad to do it, but I'm going to have to leave the Adventurer Corps. Time for you to find a new team, begin new missions together. Keep making me proud."

Sschass was shocked into silence, then finally said, "You're not too old, Thass."

Thass chuckled heavily and said, "If you have to say it like that, I am."

Sschass insisted, "That was only one dull scale, and you shed it."

Thass pointed out, "We both know it was replaced by another dull scale, and I have many more dull scales still on my body. I'm still fit enough for night watch at Gnass. I can tussle with the odd monster here and there. But I can't do the long missions anymore. I'm slowing down. I'm a danger to my friends, not my enemies. Let me keep my honor. Let our last quest and victory be how I am remembered. You still have things to do."

Sschass looked into the distance, where their fellow slithzerikai were coming to meet them with welcoming shouts. "I'll remember what you've taught me."

"See that you do!" Thass said, playfully poking at his arm with a claw.

* * *

It was hard for Sschass to think about reporting back to the Adventurer Corps to get a new assignment. But on the night of their homecoming, everyone had been excitedly talking about the progress of Avernum's construction in Upper Avernum, a series of caves only a few miles below the surface, recently accessed by a new portal constructed with the help of the vahnati race. An old friend had asked Sschass if he was going to be the first Avernite on the surface - after all, he did have some seniority in the Corps!

Really, it was only a few years experience in the Corps, and Sschass was sure everyone wanted that assignment. But, if he could get that - well. And it was reminding him of other adventures he could have, which, though only half as interesting - half of an immense amount was still quite a lot.

* * *

Avernum

In a dimly lit barracks of the Avernum Adventuring Corps, a woman in simple clerical robes sat at a small rough desk.

"Mother, Father, Ron," Helen wrote carefully, after removing excess ink from her quill. Parchment was expensive, and she didn't want to waste any. "I've just been assigned to a squad, the first one I've ever been in. My squadmates and I are getting along well-"

She gasped in surprise as she realized Sschass had appeared over her shoulder. "My apologies, Helen," he said. "I was just going to ask which watch you wanted to take."

"Of course, Sschass, thank you," she said, trying to return to normal breathing. "If it's still open, the second watch is what I would prefer."

Sschass rumbled admiringly, "Ah, you don't mind being awakened at that time of night?"

Helen admitted, "In the midnight hours, I think better, and pray better."

"If you actually enjoy it, I'm sure we can make it work. I'll go talk to the others." Sschass told her. He slipped soundlessly out of the room.

Helen returned to writing, "They all have been very kind and considerate to-"

Albert's bag thumped onto his bed after being flung out of his hands at the door, at about the same time he called out, "Helen? Hey there! You haven't seen Frruh, have you? Sschass wants to get the watches sorted out. I wanted to see if he'd trade for first watch."

Helen prayed soundlessly, and tried to look away from the jagged line she'd made through a few of the words in her startlement. "No, Albert, I haven't seen Frruh lately," she replied tightly.

"Are you writing to your family?" Albert asked, coming closer.

"As a matter of fact, I am," Helen told him. Probably they'd still be able to read the words through the line - it wasn't a very big line.

"Who are you sending it with?" he inquired. "I only ask because I sent a letter to my family with Matthias - big mistake. He completely forgot it - went and said he lost it! The idea! Send it with a proper caravan, not a fellow adventurer, that's what I learned."

"People do make mistakes," Helen noted, "but I'll keep it in mind, thank you."

"No problem," he said cheerfully, "I mean, he told me later it was a joke, but is that funny? Still don't know if he really got it to them. Anyway, send it with a caravan." He walked to his bunk and began to sort through the pack he'd just tossed onto it. Helen gazed at her parchment and wondered if he were perhaps trying to make as much noise as possible.

Frruh came in at that moment, and Albert made yet more noise enthusiastically greeting him, then trying to persuade him to change watches with him. Helen stared at her quill as she rotated it idly in her hand. The Corps had said they could ask to be assigned to different teams.

She considered it a bit longer, then shook her head. There was really quite a lot of wisdom in this team assignment, she could tell. Just before she went back to finishing her letter, Frruh began making a sound in the back of his throat, but after a moment she realized it was a purr. Apparently Albert had convinced him. She assumed a nephilim made a sound like that for the same sort of reasons ordinary cats did.

Anyway, it was time she finished this letter. She had to tell her family about their mission.

* * *

Albert and Helen were talking about something as they walked through the fort after their latest round of training. Frruh was walking behind them, watching them. Sschass sidled up to him and asked, "So, how long do you think it'll be before they'll court?"

Frruh stared at him, slightly taken aback. "This isn't courting?"

Sschass continued, "Yes, but neither of them realize it yet."

"Ah," Frruh said. "Of course, it's obvious they will be in love. It's still a little hard for me to read the finer emotions on human faces. I didn't know it wasn't obvious to them." He frowned. "Are you sure they can't tell?"

Sschass laughed quietly, "I'm sure. I mean, I can't read their faces perfectly either, but the voices I can."

"How can it be so obvious to everyone else, but not to them?" Frruh objected.

Sschass suggested, "They just don't consciously see each other as potential mates, not yet. No idea why." He sighed. "I was going to bet with you on whether they'd fall in love, but it's too obvious."

Frruh considered and suggested, "We could bet on how long it will take."

"Two coins says three weeks," Sschass said quickly.

"Five weeks," Frruh stated, "they must have serious problems to not be taking an interest in each other yet. It'll take a while to break through that."

"I wouldn't go that far," Sschass demurred, amused. "But this should be entertaining."

Albert glanced back at them and asked, "What are you two doing all the way back there? Hurry up!"

"Maybe you could slow down so the rest of us could catch up?" Helen suggested pointedly.

"I want to get to the mess hall! All the good food will be gone at this rate!" Albert waved at Sschass and Frruh urgently.

"When is there ever good food in the mess hall?" Sschass inquired jocularly.

Albert gestured helplessly and returned, "Not-as-bad food, then!"

* * *

Some way into their meal and conversation that evening, Sschass finally inquired, "Albert, you do realize we're just the backup team?"

"'Just the backup team'," Albert fired back jovially, "is an incredible honor. 'Only' the second group of people who get to explore the surface we're breaking through to! I get it, we don't deserve it, we're just greenhorns except for you - but we've got it, and OK, I'm excited about it."

Frruh observed acerbically, "The first team is not composed of fools - this mission is too important. They'll finish the job, and we'll be reassigned without ever beginning."

Albert, finally peeved, argued, "You know, this is a pretty big mission. Big enough that they may need a second team to help. The surface is a big place, you know. There's always a chance."

Helen exclaimed, "Always a chance? Albert, the only way we could get a chance is if something happened to the first team! Weren't you listening to the briefing?"

He put the bite he'd been about to eat back on his plate, turned fierce eyes on her, and insisted vehemently, "That wasn't what I meant!"

"I know that!" she declared irritatedly, gesturing with empty hands. "That's why I said it!"

"Are you serious?" he asked shrilly.

Sschass broke in, "My intention-"

Albert held up a hand. "Hold on, Sschass. I get what you mean, I really do, but," and he turned to Helen, "I really think that deserves an explanation."

Her frown deepened as she told them all, "No, I'm not saying you want anything to happen to the first team. But who else will believe that when you keep being careless with words that way?"

"Are people really listening to and caring about us that much?" Albert wondered aloud.

Sschass, feeling each furtive glance of other dining adventurers like a javelin, rubbed his crest and muttered, "Many are now."

* * *

The walk to their barracks was ordinarily very short, but tonight it felt like an eternity. Sschass and Frruh lingered behind, Albert pushed ahead, and Helen tried to catch up to him, but a taut silence was the only thing connecting all four of them. Frruh muttered to Sschass, "They'd have to be fools to pick us."

Ignoring Sschass' silence, Frruh continued, "Even apart from all this, Albert's the only one of us who's even seen the sun."

Sschass said sadly, "Isn't that why we should have some pity for him? I'm frustrated with him, but…" He hissed and rubbed his crest, at a loss for words.

Albert's pace slowed, then stopped, and the others approached him cautiously. He finally said, "I get it, OK? I'm lousy at it, but I'll try keeping my mouth shut - on one condition."

Helen said in astonishment, "On a condition?"

"Yes," he insisted, then took a deep breath and continued, "I know, you know- I know none of you have ever been on the surface. I don't know what it's like to be born here, you don't know what it's like to be born there. I mean, why would you believe it's worth all this trouble to get there? All the risk of meeting the Empire again? But it is worth it. I'm getting there, someday, somehow. OK, maybe I won't go on this mission. I'll wait years if I hafta, stretch my coins till they scream, and be a settler on the surface when they finally open it up. And whenever I go, if any of you is able to come with me, I will show you how great it is there. I'll show you the sky - I'll show you weather - none of you even know what weather is! It's wrong, I tell you! Neat stuff here? OK, but the surface is way better."

"That is a long condition," Helen spoke, unimpressed.

He turned to face her.

"But I'll take it," she added. "I believe you, and I want to see what you and my parents keep talking about with my own eyes. I am happy for you, really, and for all of us, really, I am. Being on a team with someone who's been there - it's one of the best things that could happen. And I don't believe it's a coincidence. Just please, try and keep a lid on it, please?"

"OK," he told her, "if you insist, I'll be sad about it." And with a smirk, he set off.

"I don't want you to be sad about it!" she called as she set out after him, shaking her hands imploringly, and with faint annoyance.

"I'll be perfectly contained-" he assured her with a grin over his shoulder, as she protested, "That's not what I want!"

"No one will ever know I'm happy about this assignment again," his mock-solemn voice carried back, and her aggrieved voice replied, "I didn't say that! Nobody said that!" But despite her "Hmph!" and head-shaking, there was finally a peace around them all.

"That's a relief," Sschass said to Frruh.

"Definitely," Frruh told him. "But apparently it'll be four weeks - we'll both lose our bet."

"That's not how it works," Sschass insisted, but Frruh shook his head and smiled slyly.

"We'll be revisiting this in three weeks when I win," Sschass insisted.

They all returned to the barracks together.

* * *

Leafloss 21, 815 I. E.

2 Years before Albert's Exile

Fort Avernum

Nathan and Warren entered the inn on the evening after their exile into Avernum. It was a rough joint. There were rough-hewn wooden tables, rough wooden chairs, several rough planks constituting a bar, and rough wooden barstools. All in all, a rough joint, but there were rougher in Avernum - Nathan and Warren just hadn't been in them yet.

Most of the tables in the dining area were taken by groups of soldiers, or by fellow exiles they didn't know, so Nathan and Warren hoisted themselves onto the barstools. One of the others was already holding a large man, who was already holding a large drink. Nathan recognized him as one of those who had gone through the portal with them that day. Nathan grunted at the man as he sat beside him, "'llo. I'm Nathan."

"Derek," the big man returned, making eye contact after setting down his cup. Nathan noted that Warren had sat next to him, away from Derek, and doubted any introductions would be forthcoming, and added, "And he's Warren."

"I can speak for myself," Warren groused.

"Don't I know it," Nathan agreed.

Fortuitously, the innkeeper finished serving other customers and approached them at that moment, and they made arrangements for the evening's room and board, and what the innkeeper gleefully announced as "your first drink in Avernum." Nathan could see Warren was even more wary than he was of how all the attention was fixed on them, but he gestured to Warren to drink at the same time he did. Warren pouted a moment, but seeing Nathan's stare, did so.

Nathan and Warren were well acquainted with poor wine, but that didn't stop the coughing and sputtering from either of them. The bar erupted in cheers and scattered applause.

"Mushroom merlot, gents!" the innkeeper chuckled.

"There are better drinks than this, right?" Warren asked hopefully.

"If you pay more, sure!" The innkeeper shrugged. He left for one of his many trips to wait on other customers.

"It doesn't get a lot better, I'll bet," Warren sighed, and tried to down more of his drink.

Derek commented, "Probably took a few years off our lives. 'Course, the portal probably did, too. I didn't think I'd survive that."

Nathan agreed, "It was a near thing. I wasn't sure I'd survive down here - but now it turns out they've got cities and a place to get a drink. Could be worse."

"You still might not survive down here," Warren told them cheerfully. Nathan wondered darkly if this were his idea of a joke, and shot back, "What happened to your big plans to find a way back to the surface, Warren?"

"I'll have to die to give them up," Warren said wryly. "But brigands and monsters here will be happy to oblige!"

Derek asked, "So, just how do you know there is an exit to the surface?"

Warren pointed out, "We haven't all suffocated. There must be passages to the surface, enough for us all to get fresh air."

"And yet no-one's ever found them," Derek said with the finality of skepticism.

"Oh, I'm not saying that they're big enough to fit through, or that they aren't unclimbable shafts," Warren allowed. "But they must still exist. Besides, even if it seems impossible at first, we'll be able to solve the problems, if we can just go about it the right way. For example, even if it was a vertical shaft, maybe we could find magic that would let us fly."

Nathan gave Warren a skeptical look, Derek gave him a skeptical snort, but the returning innkeeper gave him, "I've heard of the Orb of Thralni. A small group of people can fly if they hold it."

"There, exactly," Warren said, slapping his own thigh. "It wouldn't let us fly forever, but long enough to carve out handholds, or even find some magic to make or find an alcove to rest in, until we can make another flight up."

Nathan wondered aloud, "How do you know it can't make you fly forever?"

Warren peered back at him, noting, "Logic. A finite item can't contain infinite power."

"If you say so," Nathan acquiesced. "You are a mage."

Warren swiveled his head around a moment and then said, "Wait, were you addressing me with that last remark?"

Nathan stared at him. "I thought you were a mage."

Warren squinted at him in confusion, asking, "Why would you think that?"

"You knew Erika was banished here, and she's a mage," Nathan pointed out.

Nathan, Derek, and the innkeeper, not quite in unison, protested that everyone knew about Erika.

"Oh," Nathan said, then fixed a dark gaze on his glass as he drank it. Sure, he had known she was famous back on the surface, but he hadn't realized that she had that sort of fame among civilians.

"And the whole Triad, the lot of them got banished with her," the innkeeper went on. "Patrick, Rone, Solberg. Oh, and Aimee and Linda. They're the only reason we can survive down here, mind you. They locked up ol' Grah-Hoth - gave those lousy sliths what-for - and they magically changed the trees and mushrooms and fungi so they'd feed us proper! Almost proper. Can't do everything right!"

One of the soldiers nearby called out, "King Micah did his bit!"

"And still doing it," the innkeeper agreed, "keeping bandits off our backs and the bureaucrats off our (expletive deleted)."

There were general cheers and laughter, and most people took a swig in an unsynchronized manner. Nathan joined in, and Warren finally did, too.

Derek pointed at Nathan and guessed, "You were in the army, weren't you?"

Warren pointed out quickly, "I would've bet on it, if there was anyone who'd take the other side of it. In the army, and had at least a few men under you."

"I was, and I did," Nathan admitted, nettled that he could not guess correctly about others' lives, while his own was transparent. "How did you know?"

"Something about you," shrugged Derek.

Warren put in, "Bearing, mostly."

Nathan took a sip of his drink.

Derek and Warren looked at him expectantly.

Nathan took another sip of his drink.

A crowd was gathering to watch some soldiers arm wrestle. Warren cast a disappointed glance at Nathan before getting up and taking his drink to watch them. Derek remained sitting, finishing his drink. Nathan cast a glance over at the crowd and saw Warren gambling on the contestants. Nathan shrugged and polished off his drink.

Warren finished that evening richer than he had started. Nathan didn't inquire into exactly how, partly because he retired early to the common sleeping area of the inn, trying to slumber instead of staring at the ceiling. Eventually he succeeded.

* * *

Author's Note: I don't quite remember whether Avernum has a perpetual pale light from the mushrooms, or whether the mushrooms have a rough day-night cycle. I also don't know whether or not slithzerikai have multiple rows of teeth, but it was a neat detail for that scene, if I may say so myself.

Captain Martin isn't actually in any game, as far as I know - I just made him up since it was more natural for him to be addressed by name.

Sschass' exploits before joining this team are canonical only in the sense that Avernum often has to fight off wicked slithzerikai, and good slithzerikai live in Gnass.

I may be incorrectly remembering there being an inn or bar in Fort Avernum, but it seems likely there'd be one.


	3. Final Preparations

Suncome 29, 832 I. E.

15 Years after Albert's Exile

Tower of Magi, Avernum

Helen turned, her simple clerical robes sweeping over the stone floor. "Mother, Father!" she called, running towards them. They had been waiting for her just inside the entrance to the Tower of Magi, which she was now entering.

They hugged her affectionately before saying, "And who are you folks? Are you her fellow adventurers?" to the group who had been walking with her.

Albert stepped forward, shaking her father's hand and nodding to her mother. "Good to meet you, I'm Albert. Yes, the Adventurer Corps organized us as a party just a few months ago."

A tall, lean slithzerikai greeted her parents in the same way, introducing himself in his naturally hoarse voice as, "Sschass of Gnass. I am glad to meet Helen's kin at last."

"Well, most of us," her father said good-naturedly. "Her brothers and sister couldn't make it, but send their love."

The last figure regarded them from beneath his hood, nodding at each of them. "Frruh," he introduced himself. "A pleasure. May I inquire your names?"

"John and Martha," said her father after her parents both had a moment of staring at the nephilim.

Helen's mother noted, "You have an excellent accent, Frruh." Though there often seemed to be a purring noise in his throat, it almost never made it into his speech, as it did with others of the few friendly nephilim. "May I ask where you are from?"

"Most recently, here, the Tower of Magi, where I completed my apprenticeship and became a mage," he explained. "My tribe is small and makes its living hunting monsters in the Great Cave, and sometimes beyond."

"How far beyond?" John asked, interested.

"As far as necessary," Frruh said. Almost too late, he added, "We sometimes request permission to enter the Abyss for hunting. But only in lean times. The monsters' flesh there is less tasty."

John and Martha actually managed a sincere chuckle at that. Most Avernites, sooner or later, feasted on a creature that, an hour before, had tried to make a meal of them.

This was why Helen was so fondly remembering her mother's cave rat pie as they hugged goodbye. She hugged her father next, who whispered something encouraging about all the training in surface lore she and her party had been through. Her heart warmed with his encouragement, and suppressed her thoughts reminding her that they had been rushed through their training when it became clear that the first team was not returning.

Helen, Albert, Frruh, and Sschass went further inside the Tower and faced the portal Avernum had built in the Tower of Magi; the portal to Upper Avernum, a series of new caves miles above Avernum, near a passage to the surface. Here Avernum had built small forts, marshaled its best people, and awaited knowledge of whether the surface held someplace they could call home.

There was a line to enter the massive portal. As Frruh recalled, there were less supply carts now than there had been when Upper Avernum was in a building boom. Even now, though, there were many people traveling back and forth on important business. Some of his old friends, finally out of the portion of apprenticeship requiring a vow of silence, found him in line, and they reminisced a bit.

Frruh enjoyed their company, and hearing them reminisce about how the mages, human and vahnati, had helped build the portal. The mighty Erika herself had assisted in the task - in return for a tower in Upper Avernum. One of Frruh's friends, however, mentioned awe at the work of Linda in particular. Why her, of all the distinguished people? Linda had been banished for good reason, but it had been rescinded so she could help in the great work. Some of Frruh's friends, including the one who had just mentioned her, had gotten to work with her and the others, but Frruh had always held back because of her reputation.

He'd always tried to tell himself it was silly. The Triad knew that Linda had summoned demons. They would've required strict conditions and observations of her conduct, wouldn't they?

But then, few were banished to Avernum for obeying the rules, and once here, mages reveled in their freedom. And they were only human.

Finally, Frruh and the others neared the portal, and he and his old friends bid each other goodbye. Albert, Helen, Frruh, and Sschass stepped into the portal and stepped out in Upper Avernum.

* * *

After a short journey from Upper Avernum's end of the portal, housed in the hastily named Portal Fortress, the explorers reached their forward base, Fort Emergence. Frruh carefully placed his robes into a drawer in the party's quarters there. His hands then plucked away a few strands of his dark brown fur from the fabric. Not all of his apprenticeship at the Tower had been pleasant, but there had been enough good memories that he didn't want these robes stained with blood. Pants and a shirt were enough for now, until he earned or bartered enough for better armor. There would be plenty of opportunities for either during their next mission.

* * *

Eight days later, the group ate a simple meal, Commander Anaximander's orders for this mission still fresh in their minds. With the first team missing, he had told them, it was up to them to find out practically everything about the surface - about what opportunities and dangers it held.

After checking their equipment one last time, the adventurers headed out of the gate facing the surface, then crossed a bridge over a bubbling river of lava. It was known throughout the fort that in case of an attack from the Empire, the bridge would be collapsed.

Helen may've misinterpreted Frruh's grimace at the overpowering odor of sulphur as fear of the crossing from which he needed distraction, or she may've just been curious, for she called to him and asked, "Frruh, what do you think we'll find on the surface?"

He answered, "It is my own theory that all or most of the Empire succumbed to some sort of plague. That is the only way I can explain five years of silence after being driven out of Avernum. But soon enough, we'll all know for certain."

It was Albert's turn to grimace. "Bleak, but sensible," he called back to them all, from the place where his usual long strides had taken him. "But even though being beaten in the war hurt their pride, I bet they dealt with that by executing a few generals and burying the matter with them. They don't care about us anymore. So we'll find people who don't care about us, and that's a good thing."

"Sschass?" Helen asked.

Sschass shook his head violently. "I still don't understand what they were teaching us we'd find on the surface. I can't begin to imagine what the situation is there. Everyone says there's no ceiling, but there's still something colored up there-"

"Sky," the other three supplied.

"I know that, but I still don't get how something that isn't there can be colored!"

"It's, it's," Albert started, then finally said, "Look, I'll show you. I'll show you all, everything. And stop worrying about the squirrels, Sschass, they don't attack people like cave rats do." Their instructor on surface fauna had unfortunately been among those Avernites who had never seen the surface.

Albert turned his attention to Helen, and asked, "What do you think is there, Helen?"

"All my parents' best stories," she said promptly. "But all their worst ones, too. The original team must've had something happen to them. The Empire got them, or maybe a monster that still hunts somewhere. I hope we can help them, but it's probably too late, this long after they last returned for a report. It still doesn't sit well with me that we have this opportunity because they died."

Sschass put in, "It's not the way any of us wanted it, but the best way to honor them is to move ahead."

Albert, for whom even his present slight subduance was unusual, agreed, "Maybe we can find out what happened to them. Bury them, if they aren't already. But it's our mission now."

* * *

Author's Note: As I recall, Commander Anaximander says a good bit more when describing the mission, but he at least emphasizes those main points.

I don't know if the Portal Fortress was hastily named or simply aptly named.


	4. In the Sun

Radiane 2, 832 I. E.

15 Years after Albert's Exile

Passage to Surface

Albert hurried ahead, faint echoes of his footfalls carrying in the narrow tunnel.

"I want to get up there before nightfall! We have to see the sun!" Albert insisted.

Helen considered pointing out that it might be nighttime on the surface already - they couldn't know with Upper Avernum's cavern ceiling still overhead - but said nothing instead.

Just a few paces later, they came around a bend. There was faint but discernible light coming from ahead in the tunnel from around another bend.

"Wait, wait," Albert said, but his own feet were practically dancing in anticipation. "We've got to let our eyes adjust. I think it's day up there."

"Day," Sschass said, "so we'll finally see the sun."

He and the others said almost in unison, "But we won't directly look at it." Their instructors had been very firm on that point.

Helen had, in fact, been wondering if not looking at the sun were more like a ritual, or perhaps a precaution one took, such as not entering unknown caves without lights, weapons, and food, but which could be done at utter necessity. She began to doubt this as she looked down the tunnel, towards a surface she had never seen, and saw light so powerful that even around the corner it was visible. Already it strode blithely past her ideas of what "well-lit" was, then stopped to paint on cave walls with colors she didn't know existed.

Albert, either convinced that their eyes had at last adjusted, or too impatient to wait longer, finally rounded the corner, shield at the ready, but eyes on the floor. He slowly lifted them into the light, then stepped forward. "Come on, but carefully," he called out.

They all began to step forward. Albert, practically skipping ahead, found that the tunnel eventually lost its ceiling, becoming a ravine. After curving around another slight bend, it led directly onto the surface, and he laughed aloud, the sound echoing slightly for those behind him.

"Wait up!" Helen called. He did, a moment, and then he was out there, and he felt a light breeze caress his face, and he looked up (but not directly) at the sun, and he laughed and cried and whooped, and even leapt slightly on the sloping ground.

Helen walked out, wide-eyed, then turned and urged Sschass on.

He steeled himself before letting the light of the sun fall on his skin. It didn't destroy him. Instead, he felt warmed. Within moments, he felt fully alive, wondrous heat caressing his skin, an unending cascade issuing from the sun he couldn't look at. This place was for his people, too. Sschass stared around him, agape, trying to drink in all the details, match the thousands of unfamiliar sights and smells with the things the instructors had tried to explain or draw. He might easily be the first slithzerikai on the surface of the world, and he needed to describe it to the others.

Shaking her head, Helen put her hands to her cheeks, moved to tears. The grasses, the sky, the trees - now she could see what her parents had talked so fondly of, and why they felt so sad when they could not convey what it meant to their children born in Avernum. This was why Avernum's symbol was the sun. Above here was not a dim sensation of a roof, but an incredible height, and those things called clouds so far above them. There was now both terror at being exposed, and amazement at finally being uncramped. It was all so beautiful, and so fierce, and so free, and so real.

Frruh joined them. His people had come from somewhere up here that he had known only in song, but his breath was taken away by the vastness and majesty which minstrels could only intimate. Above, in a dome larger than any cave ceiling, burned a fireball brighter than any mage had ever cast, with a heat he could feel from here, far below. And the area around them was almost perfectly deserted. He could see human towns and fields in the distance here and there, downslope from their position, and one small city, but they were far off. Furthermore, the copious grasses and majestic trees showed that one inch of this land matched ten inches of soil in Avernum.

There might be a place for them here.

Albert looked up at the sun. "Early afternoon," he said aloud, "good, plenty of daylight to explore in! This looks like some sort of hill or mountain we've come out on. We should try to find some water to camp near, if we can."

Sschass was fairly sure he was the first to look back at the ravine they had come from, but he saw the others look back, too, even Albert, eventually. Behind them rose mountain peaks, astonishing to Sschass, and with no apparent gaps, at least not here. But there was plenty to explore on this side of the mountains yet, and there was no detectable danger of foes or nature cutting off their retreat back to Upper Avernum, so he pressed on, jogging slightly to catch up to Albert.

Albert started working his way downslope, but after a few paces to come around a tall tree, he stopped just before a cliff. When Helen came to join him, what they saw there took her breath away.

Albert laughed in delight. "That must be the ocean!" he cried.

The vastness of it flooded their view now. Helen stood amazed as the sun sparkled on the water. She noted strange turbulence on the water near the shoreline (later she was to hear the name of this turbulence, waves, and to hear them speak for themselves.) Across the ocean, farther than she knew any expanse could stretch, Helen saw the horizon, flat and sharp as a blade.

"How big is the surface?" she asked suddenly.

Albert laughed. "Even I haven't seen most of it. I lived on one continent, and I didn't see half of that. It takes weeks to ride across a continent, and there are four, and the seas between them are vast."

"I suppose I thought it was perhaps twice the size of Avernum and the Abyss combined, but this..." Helen drew in a breath and continued staring. She then added, "There's barely light to see the cave lakes, and though there are large ones, they can't be nearly this size." She turned to Albert. "I thought I knew with the sun, but this - I really begin to understand why you've always wanted to come back here."

"There were a lot of days I wasn't sure I was going to come back," Albert admitted, to his own surprise. "And happy as this makes me, I keep wishing I could show this to people who aren't here. And I wish I could bring all the family back here, but Carl can't ever return. Many people deserved Avernum, but our family didn't."

Everyone stared out at the vista below them quietly.

Frruh asked, "Albert, you said it would take days to ride across the continent. What do you ride on?"

"A horse," Albert said, somewhat off-balance.

"What's a horse?"

"You remember, they use them instead of giant lizards up here," Helen told him.

Frruh blinked. "You can ride them, too? They aren't just draft animals?"

Albert laughed. "No, no. They're much sweeter tempered than the giant lizards. I've only ever seen a few, but in some places, there are whole herds. Oh, we have to see some of them while we're here."

Sschass reminded them, "It'll be harder to find our way once the sun is down, right? We should get moving if we want to see more."

"I was about to say that," Albert huffed.

They did get moving, and Frruh asked, "Albert, I take it you never saw the ocean, but does anything else here look familiar?"

"Only in a general sense," Albert responded. "Trees are trees, but we don't have trees like these near the place where I was born. We must be far from any land I knew." They found a way off the rock shelf they stood on to a place further downslope, and continued their journey.

* * *

They first sighted them as continued into the sparse but verdant forest downslope from the crack whence they first emerged. There were gelatinous masses, crawling along the ground under their own power. From a distance, they were easily visible for several reasons. First, they were brightly colored. Some were masses of luminous purple, others were ochre, and others were bright green. Second, each creature was entirely solid in its color, with few variegations. Third, there was a slight sheen as their wet surfaces reflected the sunlight. Fourth, each left behind a trail like a thousand ruinous slugs, a trail that bubbled on the rich grass they crawled over, dissolving the vegetation before their eyes.

"Albert, you didn't say there were cave slimes on the surface, too!" Helen exclaimed. The group had their weapons ready while the slimes were a long way off, most of them having had some experience of slimes in Avernum. Helen glanced over at Albert, who was staring in horror, and he finally replied, "We don't. I mean, maybe in caves. But not like this."

"The sunlight doesn't change colors we see that much, does it?" Sschass asked, confused. "I've never seen slimes that color."

Frruh suddenly exclaimed, "Do not let your guard down, fellows. Something's wrong here, and these may be why no one's heard from the first surface exploration team."

The slimes had no visible orifices or antennae, but they seemed to have sensed the adventurers, and started undulating toward them. They met in battle soon after, the slimes attempting to fling pseudopods onto the adventurers and dissolve them, or perhaps eat them whole. This the adventurers were prepared for, as cave slimes behaved similarly. However, the purple slimes, just before their fellows charged, cast spells (with no words or gestures), launching projectiles at the adventurers. Startled, they intercepted these with shields, and sometimes their bodies. The pain and distraction nearly allowed the other slimes to overwhelm them. With hacking and spells they finally reduced the slimes to bits that stopped wriggling.

Frruh stared down at the last bits of slime as the adventurers rested. "These slimes," he finally said, slightly startling the others, "are not natural."

Sschass countered, "Frruh, eyebeasts can cast spells, too."

"I'm not always sure eyebeasts are natural," Frruh returned. "But these creatures are less so. They feature in no one's lore, and their coloring - it's too uniform."

Helen said concernedly, "Back upslope, I thought I saw some diseased patches of land. If there were enough of these slimes out there, maybe they did that."

Albert protested, "But Frruh, why would someone make something like that?"

Frruh said simply, "I do not know. And I hope I am wrong. We would have to risk contact with the locals to know if they are natural."

There weren't any locals in the vicinity, and it was getting dark, so they set up camp. That evening, they watched the sunset in awe, some of them for the first time in their lives. When the moon and stars came out, Helen began to cry with joy. While Sschass kept watch for more slimes, Albert and Frruh and Helen lay on their backs, and Albert began to identify the stars to his friends.

When he paused for a bit, Frruh sat up and said quietly, "Thank you, Albert. I feel like I'm on the first expedition to Avernum, or to the vahnati caverns. Wonders and dangers around every corner. Or maybe it's more like the time of the Holy Heroes. Perhaps they saw such wonders in the remote caves they explored while they did their quests."

Albert said rhetorically, "I dunno, why do we call the Tamers of Avernum the Holy Heroes, anyway?"

Helen said emphatically, "They are not the Holy Heroes. I get so upset whenever I hear people saying that."

Sschass stopped near Frruh and noted, "They did kill Grah-Hoth. And one of them was a priest-" but he was taken aback here by Helen's barely-suppressed laughter, which was coming out as snorts. Sschass was distracted back into awareness by Frruh using his elbow to bump Sschass' leg, then gesturing to Albert. Albert was gazing at Helen with a mushy expression - apparently he thought this was a cute side of her. Sschass supposed there was no accounting for taste.

"Yeah, and defeating Grah-Hoth was awesome," Albert agreed, "but they proved that you don't need to be holy to kill something unholy. It's a shame. I mean, it'd be nice to have heroes you could look up to!"

Helen put in, "I don't mean to take away from the courage it took Nathan and Warren and the rest to face Grah-Hoth and his hordes-" and here Albert put in some words of agreement, "and their other services to Avernum. But really, when you look at it, we're still dealing with a lot of what they left behind. Assassinating the Emperor? Vengeance isn't right, and the war proved it."

Albert continued, "Yeah, and I never heard whether they even wanted revenge, so it was really Erika's vengeance that they were doing it for, wasn't it? How many people died for that? I mean, I lost a brother to the Empire in the war, so I still hate them - but looking back, even I kinda see the Empire's point. A band of crooks teleports in and kill people? You can't just let that go."

Frruh noted, "But you can't just let go how the Empire treated us, or our ancestors, by tossing us down here, many of us not even for real crimes, either!"

Sschass gesticulated and said, "The war was horrible. But really, killing Sss-thsss, and many of the other wicked slithzerikai - that was good for everyone, slithzerikai included, more than most people realize. I hope you'll think about that and consider the Tamers more kindly."

Albert put up his hands and said, "No, I know. I mean, I still love a lot of the stories about them. Nathan, Warren, Derek, and Ribaldi - I still want to be like them most days." He chuckled. "It's just, I grew up, and I realized that there were other days I hope I'm not like them. And then I grew up more, and I realized they were just folks trying to get by when things were even wilder than they are now, and they helped make things less wild. It's only thanks to them we have enough security to get to the surface. But that doesn't mean I have to approve of everything they did."

"There are a lot of things we don't have to approve of that they did," Helen muttered.

* * *

Leafloss 22, 815 I. E.

2 Years before Albert's Exile

Fort Avernum

When Nathan had woken up, Warren had begun following him, annoyingly and obtrusively. They met Derek as they left the inn's common sleeping area and entered the common eating area, and he followed them naturally, saying something ruefully about "not having anything better to do."

"So, where are we going?" Warren asked Nathan as they left the inn.

"Somewhere we can get work, and food," Nathan said, looking at the job board as he walked towards it.

"In that order?" Warren sighed. Derek chuckled, and Nathan insisted, "Yes, in that order."

The job board was located in a central spot in the fort, and, so they'd heard, in many of Avernum's towns as well. People would post work that they needed done on scraps of paper, on the board, and adventurers or other folk would take them and try to fulfill them.

Nathan looked at the job board a bit longer, then took one paper off the board. Derek made a face, and Warren, noticing this from a few paces back, asked, "Uh-oh, what is it?"

"Package delivery," Nathan said simply.

"Oh," Warren said, considering. "A valuable package, no doubt. Could be very useful."

He blinked as Nathan's suddenly livid face nearly pressed into his own. "Listen close, Warren," Nathan growled. "That package is going undisturbed to its intended recipient. And if I hear one more bright idea about it, I'll bash you in the face and leave you here. This is a fresh start for me, and I don't intend to (expletive deleted) the good people here."

It's said that the eyes can be windows to the soul. Nathan, peering into Warren's eyes, could not only see the comebacks, he could see that they had already pulled on their boots. There was one comeback in a jaunty but well-worn hat who was going to remind him that a bunch of exiled crooks were not good people, and another in a threadbare traveling cloak who would hint that the package likely was for a rich merchant or uncaring bureaucrat, and a few others whose faces were familiar but whose names Nathan couldn't place. Under Nathan's fixed stare, the comebacks wisely gave up their expedition out of Warren's mouth, and commiserated with each other in his head. Derek raised an eyebrow at the colloquy, but that was the way his eyebrow laughed, and all of Derek joined Warren in following Nathan as he fetched the package and headed out of town.

* * *

Author's Note: I'm fairly sure that letter-carrying or package-carrying is one of the first quests in Avernum available on the job-board, but I'm not quite sure at this point.


	5. Into Krizsan

Early in the month of Radiane, 832 I. E.

15 Years after Albert's Exile

Surface

As the Avernites had headed towards the largest city they'd yet seen on the surface, the one on the coast, they had noticed along the way abandoned farmhouses, some of which had been seared open by slimes' acid, and tilled fields crisscrossed with lines of melted crops. There were a few travelers and even the Empire's patrols, but though they got some funny looks, no one commented on the humans' pale skin, or Sschass or Frruh's clearly nonhuman visages. Instead, they got grim warnings about the dangers of slimes in the area. Though they heeded the warnings, the adventurers did run into a few more groups of the slimes.

Sschass shook his head. "I wouldn't have believed we could walk openly on the Empire's roads. It doesn't bode well that they are so concerned with these slimes."

Albert suggested, "Let's just walk right into the city. We need information, we'll need supplies."

Frruh cautioned, "My hope was that we could find an isolated farmhouse, or an out-of-the way inn, for getting information. It's one thing to be on the roads. It's not safe to enter the Empire's territory where they will be more interested in defending it."

Albert insisted, "We're just travelers right now. And even with our watches, I'd rather not sleep outdoors more than we have to. Although I still have more stars to show you tonight."

Helen and Sschass appeared dubious but resigned, while Frruh settled his own feelings by reminding Albert, "It's my turn to name the next star you don't recognize." His voice perhaps was not as steady as he hoped to make it sound, but they each elected to ignore this.

So they continued into the city, which a sign informed them was called Krizsan. What had been true on the roads proved true here - people noticed the Avernites were different, and were interested, when they stopped to think about it, but the townspeople had bigger problems at the moment. The adventurers were thus welcomed with polite interest, and the merchants traded fairly with them. Helen and the others were drawn to the docks, gazing in awe at the waves and fish, and though they got bemused looks, no one seemed to think their ignorance of such things a cause for alarm. Albert reminded them that plenty of people had grown up never seeing the sea. They had learned during their time in the city that they were on the recently settled continent of Valorim, so perhaps it was common to find strangers gawking at new sights.

Later that afternoon, Albert took a deep breath, looked down the street, and fixed a resolved gaze on the mayor's office.

"You can't be serious," Helen told him flatly.

Albert pointed out, "If Avernum's going to exist on the surface, the Empire's going to find out sooner or later."

Sschass noted, "But there's no reason to announce it to them. And it may well be that the First Expedition fell afoul of the authorities here. The townsfolk have been friendly so far, but a reminder that we are from a different nation may change that."

Albert floundered a bit, then asked, "Where else are we going to find out about the slimes?"

Frruh advocated, "The inn would be a good place for that."

Albert lowered his voice and said, "I don't want to go in there, either. But we can't keep going on with this, 'Does the Empire want to kill us or not?' much longer. It's this, or stay off all the main roads, and out of all of the cities. I'm fine with that. I could live the rest of my life without having anything to do with the Empire. That's been one of my life's goals. But our mission is to find stuff out. We're going to have to find out about what the Empire is up to around here. If folks are going to start families and businesses on the surface, then someday, someone is going to have to straightforwardly talk to the neighbors, even if they are the Empire." He made a face.

Frruh said quietly, "The townspeople are one thing. The officials will be held to the law. They'll try to deport me to Avernum on sight, or kill me."

Albert looked at him thoughtfully. "But you, or I don't remember, maybe it was your family, has already been sent to Avernum."

"That's not amusing," Frruh said tightly.

"No, I'm serious," Albert insisted, "you're not under their jurisdiction. As long as someone is looking for a way out-"

"An official of the Empire trying to give an Avernite a break?" Helen asked skeptically.

"Ordinarily, no, but they've clearly got bigger problems here," Albert retorted.

Sschass tapped his spear and said, "There are many reasons why we may need to be prepared to fight our way out of there. But in this provincial town, while people are more worried about slimes than Avernites attacking, this may be our best chance to learn about the Empire's government here."

Frruh frowned and growled, "I want us all to swear that I won't be left behind."

Albert said hotly, "We're a team!"

Frruh snarled, "When we're all in there, and it's your kind against mine, they'll focus on me and leave you alone. It'll seem easier to let them take me. Promise me you won't do that."

Helen told him firmly, "We'll swear that we won't leave anyone behind. They may hate all of us still. We're all taking a risk. And we're all a team."

Albert threw up his hands. "You're acting as though I like the Empire. I will gladly go to blows against them."

"Just not too quickly," Sschass insisted.

So they swore. But, unexpectedly, they did not need the swearing. There were many stares, some whispering, but no one challenged them. They were given an audience with the mayor immediately.

No one realized until much later how significant was this brief meeting in a provincial backwater between strangers who didn't quite trust each other.

* * *

"Did we just agree to help the Empire?" Albert asked, stunned, as they left the city.

"A mayor of the Empire asked for our help," Frruh pointed out.

Helen noted, "The only difference between that and what Albert said is that we haven't agreed yet."

Frruh agreed, "A highly important difference."

"Yes, a relieving one," she agreed back.

Albert frowned and said, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but, shouldn't we?"

Sschass protested, with a rare sibilant hiss, "We have a mission already! They have the Empire's army! Why don't they go and deal with this?"

"They don't for the same reason Avernum has us," Albert pointed out. "The soldiers are busy defending the people. And nobody knows where to look. They should have their own adventurers, but maybe they've all been killed already."

Frruh suddenly asked, "How many soldiers are there here, anyway?"

Sschass paused for a long moment, then growled, "Don't make me say it."

"It's already obvious - not enough," Frruh insisted. "I know the rest of you have seen it with your own eyes, and in any case, it's obvious from the Empire asking us at all."

Helen shook her head and exclaimed, "I don't want these people to die, but I did not join the Avernum Adventurer Corps to do the Empire's dirty work!"

"Literally," Albert quipped. "Those slimes are disgusting."

They laughed suddenly, the tension broken.

"Believe me, I hear what you're saying," Albert told them. "I don't want to end up on the Empire's side. But we're here to scout, and it'd be pretty important to at least find out where these slimes are coming from."

"Perhaps we can go back and report to Commander Anaximander, and then get his advice," Sschass proposed, and the others heartily agreed.

As they got closer to the crack which led back to Fort Emergence, Sschass thought aloud, "You know, if the slimes aren't stopped, then through dumb luck, they may just find their way into Upper Avernum."

"Great, more monsters in Avernum," Albert groaned.

"Stopping the slimes is growing more appealing," Helen admitted.

* * *

Agate Tower, Surface

Eight days Later, the bandit mage brought up his staff, which shivered as it tried to parry Albert's sword. Albert was able to move his blade down the staff and nick the hand of the mage. The mage was knocked back a step, and he dropped his staff as his wounded hand was reflexively clutched by the other. Sschass's spear finished him.

The Avernites looked around a bit, then left the mage's sanctum and walked back to the large hall of the tower and stared at the pool of slime, which would still occasionally bubble and froth up a new slime, which they would hurriedly stamp out. Sschass had tried stabbing the pool, and Frruh had tried singeing it, and Helen had tried freezing it, but the pool still bubbled quietly.

Helen considered, "We could scoop it up and dump it outside, but I don't know that it won't keep working out there. Besides, it's time I got those arrows out of you, Albert."

Albert was about to try to disagree, so Sschass volunteered, "I'll keep watch for new slimes," and Frruh offered, "The mage's journal may have information we can use against the slimes."

Helen pulled the arrows out of Albert, who tried to stifle his reactions, and Helen closed the wounds with quick chants. Sschass looked back at the hall they had just entered, blockaded at several points with walls and windows guarded by archers they had defeated. He commented, "I thought the Empire was irresponsible for allowing brigands so near, but this was a formidable defense, and a remote and well-hidden place. If that sailor hadn't noticed the lights on this cliff, and if that sailor hadn't been in the inn in Krizsan for us to talk to, who knows how long it would've taken to conquer this tower."

Frruh announced sadly, "We must fight further than we hoped." He lifted slightly an open book he had taken from the mage's study, and continued, "The mage found the slime pool elsewhere; southwest of Colchis, he wrote. It was one among many. He scooped it up, brought it here in a coarse bag, learned to control the slimes. If we are to stop the slimes, it'll have to be at their true source."

"This is so wrong," Albert growled. "People are dying, crops being destroyed, and these bandits wanted to use this unnatural power for their own gain. They didn't care that they were making it worse for everyone. It makes me ashamed of humanity."

Helen looked at the dead bodies around them and remarked, "Seeing one of the doctrines so confirmed - the horrors we can perform and become - it is not pleasant."

Frruh put in, "So felt I, when we had to lay waste to the camp of the nephil bandits in Upper Avernum."

Sschass was about to commiserate with his own experiences when Frruh turned from his reading and asked, "Sschass, please step back." He did so, and so Frruh, with flourishes of fingers and deft movements of hands and arms, cast a fireball that directly hit the slime pool. That portion of slime which wasn't evaporated was baked as though it were pottery, and as it lay in the hole, several remnants of it shattered.

"That was incredible," Albert said softly.

Frruh turned to him, nodded, then turned back to the ruin and commented, "It's the only way to destroy these pools. Heat, vast, fierce, and instantaneous."

* * *

Slime Pit, Surface

After weeks spent finding the exact spot of the slime pit, then destroying all of the pools the slimes spawned in, the Avernites had fought an enormous, alien slime. That was the best way to describe it - four times the size of a normal slime, with massive tendrils - but it was gone now.

When they had caught their breath, Albert said. "All right. We'd better have a look around. Make sure there aren't any more slime pools."

Helen hoped the slimes that had occasionally entered this part of the cave were just stragglers they had missed while clearing the rest of the caves, or some sort of bizarre honor guard for the alien slime, but it would do to check this area, since they hadn't gotten to explore it yet.

In a concealed cave nearby was a rune on a wall.

Albert groaned. "You were right, Frruh. They were manufactured."

Frruh attempted to thwack him on the back, but lacked practice, so it was more forceful than he meant it to be. "You needn't sound so surprised," Frruh joked. Sschass held the light closer to the rune, and Frruh began to sketch it.

Albert said, only slightly defensively, "I was already starting to come around. There was almost nothing about these slimes that was natural. And trying to take over-" he started to feel queasy again at the memory, and finally concluded with, "I never thought I'd feel sorry for goblins."

After a few moments, Helen said aloud, "I don't recognize the rune. Do you, Frruh?"

"Unfortunately," Frruh growled. "It's Erika Redmark's personal signature. Not her family crest. Her imprint as a mage."

"Are you saying Erika made these slimes?" Albert asked, astonished.

Sschass disputed, "Among those with the power to make these slimes, her mark would be common knowledge. Someone could be boxing her."

Albert stared at him, and so did Helen until she said, "Oh, framing her." Sschass agreed, shuffling his feet slightly, and Albert felt relieved.

Frruh nodded. "On the other hand, she does hate the Empire, and she can't attack it in person, so making and planting these slimes could be her revenge. But those are also reasons she's easy to frame."

They searched the area thoroughly, but found no further evidence.

* * *

2 Years before Albert's Exile

Mertis, Avernum

Derek and Warren had been dragging Nathan towards Mertis for awhile.

Nathan had earlier been able to at least shuffle along, but soon it became clear that his bandages (despite having been redone twice) were severely constricting his breathing, yet still not stopping the bleeding. Derek and Warren had begun dragging him at that point.

As they came into town, one of the guards asked what had happened, and they replied that they had been exploring the Spiral Pit. The guards regarded them with both admiration and wonder at their foolishness for taking on that haunt. Moving on to the more immediate problem, several came forward to help haul Nathan, while another went further into town, saying, "I'll get Father Ribaldi."

"He's not dead!" Derek protested. He made a disbelieving noise and looked at Warren, about to ask, "Am I right?" But Derek was disturbed to see that Warren was chewing his lip and alternately looking at the floor and at Nathan. Nathan did look paler than he had at the start of this trip.

With the help of the guards, they made it into town, and a man who they assumed was Father Ribaldi came running to meet them, along with the messenger who had summoned him. The priest, looking at the two men, and their companion's pale face, stopped and moved his mouth soundlessly, then appeared reassured and thoroughly examined the wounds. He next began to chant, finally saying, "In the name of the triune God, be healed!"

The result was astonishing. Nathan's color instantly returned, and he began to strip off the constricting bandages. These were still soiled, but beneath them was living flesh, unmarred.

"What happened, my sons?" Father Ribaldi finally asked them.

"Ghouls, (expletive deleted) ghouls - er, sorry, Father - happened," Nathan grumbled.

"In the Spiral Pit," Warren supplied, sighing in relief, and totally having forgotten about both his and Derek's injuries.

"Derek," Nathan began, "I thought I told you to keep to the front."

"What front?" Derek protested. "The skeletons ended up behind us. Was I just supposed to ignore them?"

"Warren's got our backs," Nathan insisted.

"In Derek's defense," Warren pointed out seriously and reasonably, which startled both Nathan and Derek - for Warren usually obsequiously and with clear and ironic insincerity took Nathan's side - "I barely manage to take down one skeleton, after five minutes. Three skeletons are a reasonable cause for concern. In fact, I'm fairly sure I gibbered for my life. I've done more than that which I ought to be ashamed of, and so I don't feel too bad admitting it." (Ribaldi wasn't sure how much stock to put in this, as Warren said it with the voice of one who at least pretends to be ashamed of nothing, but Warren continued-) "In any case, I'm indebted to you, Derek, for coming to my rescue. Not that I'll ever repay you, I simply am stating-"

Nathan cut in, "Warren, if you would practice more and talk less-"

Derek exploded, "Good (obscenity deleted), man, you need to get off your power trip. It was amazing any of us hit our targets instead of each other in that dark (expletive deleted). Why didn't you know he needed help?"

"I did," Nathan roared, "and I was going to! Didn't any of you listen to me - I'm the one who's going back and forth between the front and rear! But you had to break formation, Derek! I'm trying to keep everyone alive, and suddenly I'm left alone, getting mauled by a ghoul, and -"

Father Ribaldi stood and broke in, "Look at you! This one-" he gestured to Warren, "talks up a storm, yet says nothing of importance. This one," and he gestured to Derek, "blames others for his own actions. And this one-" he pointed at Nathan, "blames others to cover up his own fears and regrets! And you lot thought you could take on the Spiral Pit alone! People tell me my faith is unbelievable, but this-"

All three adventurers began shouting at Father Ribaldi at once, but he finished, "None of you have thanked God, me, or even each other, for Nathan's deliverance."

Nathan was about to attempt an angry thanks when Warren insisted, "Shut up for a minute. How did you know his name was Nathan? I don't think anyone's said it, and we haven't met you."

Father Ribaldi sucked in his cheeks and finally admitted, "I had a vision. Of all three of you."

"Oh, great," Derek groaned.

"Our names and faces?" Warren asked, only slightly less suspicious than usual.

"And that you would be staying here," Father Ribaldi added. "I've been in this town a few times on my travels. I must've just missed you this morning; when I came to visit my friends, I heard that you came to town a little while before this venture to the Spiral Pit."

Derek rolled his eyes and asked, "Let me guess. You saw a great vision. Maybe a great task we are meant to do for you? Or maybe a big donation we need to make for the work of your church?"

Father Ribaldi said irritatedly, "That would be more convenient, wouldn't it? But no. I'm supposed to help you with your great tasks."

"Which are?" Derek inquired, clearly still expecting a catch.

Father Ribaldi queried in exasperation, "You don't know yet?"

Warren shrugged. "Nathan has this idea of making a living as some kind of adventurer. I'm still with him so I can escape this place, and because I'm too lazy to farm."

Derek spoke over Warren's last few words and insisted, "Spit it out, Father. What great task are you so sure we have to do?"

Father Ribaldi replied tightly, "I wasn't told, so I assumed you knew. All I know is that I'm supposed to follow you. Don't even know what'll happen if I do."

"You mean you don't know why you had this vision, Father?" Derek said, unconvinced.

"I only know it means I am to follow you," Father Ribaldi answered. He looked to heaven (despite being interrupted by the cave ceiling) and sighed, "Lord only knows why."

"He'll be asking that a lot if he comes with us," Warren whispered amusedly to Derek.

"Don't encourage him," Derek whispered back fiercely, then said to the priest, "Would you be able to keep up if you came?"

Nathan sprang to his feet, asking, "Would we be able to survive without him? Three men with blades were nearly killed today by walking corpses. Father Ribaldi, I am grateful. And you're right. But I doubt we're the right sort of men for you."

"You're not sinners, are you?" Father Ribaldi returned dryly. "I'd never have guessed. But I won't presume on my position. You have the right to ask yourselves: am I the right sort of man for you? Anyway, call me Ribaldi. I appreciate real respect, not the fake respect of titles, and certainly not the way you roll your eyes when you say it, Derek. You may not believe it, my son, but I often mistrust authority, too. So set your mind at ease about one thing, you of little faith: I'm an itinerant - I have no building for you to donate towards. I have only what I have on my person, my faith, and the vision. And here I was hoping that last was from indigestion."

Warren sidled up to Nathan and whispered, "We could just get rid of him." Nathan turned frowning eyes on him, and Warren elaborated, "Not like that, I meant leave before he wakes up tomorrow. He hasn't got anything worth stealing, anyway."

But Ribaldi had already lifted Warren's shirt, saying, "Stop prattling a moment." He put his ear to Warren's chest to listen to his breathing, ensuring his lungs were sound, then pressed two fingers to a small slash on Warren's side, chanted to heal it, then dropped Warren's shirt, saying, "Continue prattling, if you must, my son."

Derek folded his arms as Ribaldi approached him, clearly intent on healing his wounds. Derek inquired, "Are you any good in a fight?"

Ribaldi said pointedly, "I have the better right to ask that question." Then he reached out and healed a cut on Derek's arm and added, "But down here, I sadly must do more defending of the faithful than defending of the faith. This mace your friend doesn't think worth stealing has had to lay low many foes. Not, perhaps, in a league impressive to a mighty warrior such as yourself. You might tell me about some of your conquests as I heal your leg."

Derek, trying to suppress any potential mollification from all this, admitted, "Well, there was this bandit fort we took down together."

The end of the story didn't come until they all had tankards of ale at the local inn, and each of the three adventurers had contributed to the story somehow. After Warren got up to "take a (obscenity deleted)", Ribaldi noted that, "Whatever you lot may tell yourselves about how lawless and free you are, you care about each other a great deal to drag Nathan into town with wounds like those you had. Rather sad you need me to tell you that, I must say."

Nathan didn't care to be told this by a strange priest, and also didn't like to think too hard about the implications of what was said. But at least by the time they all turned in, he had more sincerely thanked all three companions. They received it with different degrees of sincerity and belches, but fell asleep far more peacefully than they had arisen.

* * *

Author's Note:

I don't recall exactly, but I think it was three or four days' journey from Upper Avernum's opening onto the surface to Krizsan.

I may be misremembering the Agate Tower's layout. Also, in case any Avernum 3 players are confused about why fire is needed to destroy slime pools, my recollection is that in Exile 3, the Fireball spell was required to destroy the slime pools, but the spell doesn't exist in Avernum 3, and other methods of attack could destroy them. I chose to stay with the Exile 3 requirements because I liked them better.

I don't remember if only a few know Erika's rune or everyone does, since she is famous.

Ribaldi is joining the story of the Avernum 1 characters here. As I recall, it's actually possible in Exile 1/Avernum 1 to let an NPC join your party, or add in a character you create on your own later in the game. That's the sort of mechanic I had in mind for adding him.


	6. A Plague on Bigail

Empire 26, 832 I. E.

15 Years after Albert's Exile

Erika's Tower, Upper Avernum

Albert thought there was something very odd about the silent guards in full plate mail outside and inside Erika's new tower in Upper Avernum. The guards' armament was odd, too, as they bore no swords, but their gauntlets had long metal claws set above the fingers. He was relieved and terrified to see that Sschass and Helen both regarded them as unholy, and Frruh thoughtfully kept as far from them as he could.

Whether emboldened by these servants, or her own legendary prowess as a mage, Erika kept a cool distance from her guests, usually sitting in state on a chair rather like a throne. She dismissed the allegations out of hand. She offered assistance with dealing with whoever had actually made the slimes, giving as proof a medallion for each member of the party. She said this allowed her to track them and aid them as needed, though, Albert thought, this would also allow her to thwart them if she actually were behind the monsters. When Erika learned Frruh was a mage, she offered to teach him (with an air of clinical interest and at such unaffordable prices that he declined.)

That evening, as they camped in Upper Avernum, Helen remarked sarcastically, "That was quite a friendly welcome Erika gave us."

Sschass, who had apparently gotten over his alarm, put in, "We did come to accuse her of tampering in God's domain."

Frruh advised them, "She prides herself on being unapproachable by mere mortals. I'm not surprised that expendable people like us were tasked with asking her such a sensitive question. Erika only deigned to answer the question because she knew that if she didn't, the Triad or the king would be forced to ask the question more directly."

"Deep," Albert nodded. "And here I was just worried about those guards. Didn't even look like they were breathing!"

Sschass said uneasily, "They weren't, Albert."

Albert tried to rub his arms to conceal the raised hackles as Helen asked, "I saw that, too. What were they?"

"Doomguards," Frruh stated. "Complex magic. Each is individually fashioned by a mage. They are not alive. The armor is actually just a different extraction of the magical material which fills and animates their whole frame. So far, they are like golems. Their true power is that they halve if you manage to hit them. Even if your every stroke were true, you could create an army of them - all fully formed within moments of splitting, all attacking you at once."

"I'm glad that's a rare spell," Albert noted.

"Agreed," Frruh said simply.

* * *

Albert, Helen, Sschass, and Frruh returned to the surface after their meeting with Erika. Continuing their mission of exploration, they found their way over the mountains to the north of the natural crevice where Upper Avernum opened onto the surface. After crossing the mountains, they went down to a shore of Krizsan Province and bought passage on a ferry to the nearby island of Bigail. Here, they soon found the rumors to be true - it was plagued with roaches. Not a normal infestation - these roaches were clearly magically altered or made, for some were the size of small dogs, others the size of large oxen.

Fortunately, none of the adventurers had an unreasoning terror of insects, but it was extremely reasonable to have some fear of an insect as large as a man trying to eat them. They also came to feel disgust, both towards the creatures, and the effects of the diseases they sometimes caught from the roaches.

As Helen pointed out one evening, it was also a disturbing reminder that the rumors of troubles from magical monsters in other nearby regions of the surface might not be exaggerations. Perhaps the Empire wasn't inactive in this area - perhaps it was simply stretched too thin.

The logs crackled on the fire, and Sschass asked Albert, "Albert, I was wondering about your skills in battle. They're masterful. Did you train in warfare?"

Albert laughed awkwardly and said, "Well, thanks. I mean - oh, well, give me a minute. This is going to sound weird. I can never find the right words. I'm not trying to brag by being humble. But I've always been like this. I love it, but I have no idea how or why it happens."

Sschass stared at him a moment. Could Albert's considerable talent in battle simply be natural?

"It's a gift," Albert shrugged, echoing what his father had told him, a few months or years before he'd decided to become an adventurer. "This must sound stupid to you, since you've seen a lot of action. But I didn't have a tutor. I just could always fight. It's, well: where everyone else sees enemies and weapons, me, I see a dance, and I see where I ought to end up next in it. It just ends up with a lot more violent results for my dance partners?"

Frruh scratched his own cheek, listening as he continued his shift as the lookout. "We aren't your dance partners?" he asked.

"No, because then I'd be fighting you," Albert explained. "The dance partners stand for my enemies, not for my friends. It's an, well, something."

"Analogy," Helen supplied. Frruh said shortly, "I know what an analogy is." Helen ignored him and continued, "But it's a bad one, Albert, because you can't dance."

Albert complained, "You haven't even seen me dance! What makes you say I can't dance?"

"If you think fighting is dancing, you can't dance," she said with finality, but Sschass could see in the firelight a small smile on her face.

"Oh?" Albert said, approaching her. "Then I will show you how I dance."

He began some manner of traditional folk dance. Sschass wasn't familiar with human dance and couldn't tell how well he was supposed to be doing. He wasn't perhaps the most nimble of humans, but he wasn't bad, either.

Helen, however, laughed and said, "Not that - that's not a real dance. How about something hard, like the Formello Foxtrot?"

"You gonna sit there and laugh," Albert asked, "or are you going to help?" Sschass realized he was not half as offended as his words suggested, as he helped Helen to her feet and they began a fast-paced dance together. Frruh caught Sschass' eye and shook his head in exaggerated fashion, disgusted by the quality of dancing or of flirting or both. Sschass didn't think either was half bad, especially without any music to keep time with. It was unfortunate this was happening so long after the end of his bet with Frruh.

Sschass' turn for the watch came just as Albert and Helen finished the dance. Sschass asked Frruh as the latter headed towards the fire, "Any dances of your people that you know?"

"Some," Frruh said nonchalantly, and as he came to the opposite side of the fire from Albert and Helen, effortlessly did a combination cartwheel and spin and a few other moves entirely that Albert couldn't quite catch, then rose to his feet in a graceful pose. Albert and Helen clapped as Albert said, "Should've known."

* * *

The nephil standing outside the town of Bavner received the necklace gratefully. "Thank you," he said. His smile towards Albert and the others was sincere, but he flicked a look of loathing and terror towards the town as he said, "I hope you didn't have to go to too much trouble."

"No trouble at all," Helen said truthfully. She was sure, though, that there would've been trouble retrieving the necklace from the innkeeper if they hadn't started to gain a good reputation in the area. The innkeeper had managed to save face by claiming the nephil had lost the charm, and the innkeeper was holding onto it for when he came back, but she doubted this.

The nephil took the bow and quiver off of his back. "This is enchanted," he said, presenting the set to the group, "and will serve you well-"

"No!" Frruh exclaimed, gesticulating fiercely. "You need these!"

The nephil shook his head, not quite meeting Frruh's eyes, and held the items out to Frruh. "It is enough to know that my people survived the banishment to Avernum, and to have what is mine restored to me. I shall hunt with traps or my claws if I must. Let me honor you."

Frruh took off his own, lesser bow and quiver, setting them softly on the ground, and took the bow and quiver from the nephil. He strapped them on, almost opening his mouth to offer his own to the nephil, despite the near-certainty of insult, but the nephil had quickly turned and headed away.

Frruh harrumphed as they left the town behind them, "That nephilim should be a proud hunter. Treated as an honorable one. Instead, the Empire makes him a pariah. No respect."

Albert, feeling a strange tightness in his own chest, began to say, "Frruh, I-"

"Don't!" Frruh shouted, then said more quietly but less calmly, "Just don't! Because there are some days I think the same things about your species as you do mine."

Sschass' bulk suddenly appeared between the two.

"No!" Frruh yowled. "It's not - it isn't!" He huffed and walked ahead of them rapidly, calling back, "I'll be back at nightfall. I need to be away from everyone for a bit."

"Don't go too far ahead!" Albert shouted.

"When did you get the authority to tell me that?" Frruh asked without even looking back.

"When we found the bodies of the first team!" Albert shouted angrily. "Remember what happened when they split up? We've been finding their bodies scattered across this continent!"

Frruh didn't respond at all, but he was back at nightfall. Apparently, though he had been out of sight of them most of that afternoon, he had tracked them back to their camp. A small bolt of his magical flame easily lit a fire Albert had been having trouble with, earning a grudging thanks. They ate and slept. It wasn't the most harmonious night the party ever had - but at least it was together.

* * *

Albert's boots echoed on the stone floors of the hospital as he moved towards Helen. Frruh and Sschass were waiting just outside. Helen was sitting beside a sickbed, chanting for one man with a hacking cough and labored breathing. Albert took Helen's shoulders from behind, but she was still chanting, so, while maintaining a hand on one shoulder, he walked around the bed and looked into her eyes. "Helen, you can't do this for everyone. You can't go on like this."

She kept looking at the patient for a few moments after she finished her chant. The patient had managed to go to sleep, but was still sweating, apparently suffering from a high fever.

"Cure is a simple spell," Helen told Albert, finally looking at him. "I still have some more left in me."

"I know that," Albert said. "Helen, the healers know Cure, too. The patients staying here are the ones that Cure isn't helping enough."

Sidling up to them, Frruh said in a low voice, "It's as the healers said. They have advanced conditions that only time and supplies can cure - if they can be cured at all."

Helen's eyes were growing moist, and her head bowed. "They're suffering, within my reach. I trained my whole life to defeat this sort of evil. To make people well again." She looked up suddenly. "That hurts."

"Sorry," Albert said, loosening his grip on her shoulder. He was terrified to keep holding on, but terrified to let go.

"Helen," Albert told her, "the healers are holding the line here. They've got our backs. Take the fight outside, with us. We're the ones who can destroy the source of the roaches spreading these diseases. We've done it to the slimes already, we'll do it again."

"They might die," Helen squeaked.

Even while he felt sympathy, for her and the sufferers all around him, he wanted to shake her awake, but he knew that wouldn't help. He insisted, "You know this isn't where we can best serve, Helen."

Frruh quietly said, "While we were waiting, Sschass and I went to the cemetery near here. We looked at the dates on the graves. Helen, they have been dying since before we came. This is not your fault. This is not the healers' fault. If it's anyone's fault, it's whomever manufactures these plagues."

Wordlessly, Helen stood up, shaking tears free to roll down her cheeks. Frruh stood on one side, and Albert on the other, putting his hand around her shoulders. Helen's lips moved in silent prayer as they came to the exit, where Sschass met them soundlessly. No one remembered the pleasantries they exchanged with the healers as they left, though the gratitude did register.

They trudged down the hill, Albert occasionally looking at Helen and back at the building where so many still suffered. Before, he might've said any death was too good for someone from the Empire, but he couldn't really believe it now. If they ever caught whoever was behind these plagues - but what kind of justice could bring back all those in the cemetery?

* * *

Author's Note: I may be making Erika too unapproachable, and Frruh may be reading too much into her motives. Erika may have a quest she asks you to do as well, but in any case, she is rather brusque.

I made up the Formello Foxtrot - Formello is a city in Avernum, though.

Albert has the trait Natural Warrior, which in the Avernum 3 game gives him a combat bonus - I just thought this would be an interesting way to learn how he sees it. Your heroes can have this or other traits to help them, at the cost of slower development of their skills.

I may not be recalling the personality of the nephil outside of Bavner correctly, and I'm making up the nephilim culture, attempting to follow the general cues in the game. Also, the whole story of the lost charm may be different from what I'm putting here; I don't remember the canonical story.

The first team to explore the surface split up, and I think they all died except one survivor, who might've simply decided to live on the surface and abandon Avernum.

The hospital may actually have been the first floor of the Anama temple in Shayder on the Isle of Bigail, but in any case, I recall a facility treating people seriously ill with diseases contracted from the giant roaches. I don't remember if it had a cemetery, but the diseases were supposed to be at least potentially lethal.


	7. Scales and Doubts

2 Years Before Albert's Exile

Slith Castle, Slithzerikai Lands near Avernum

Nathan looked at Sss-Thsss' throne room, full of the largest sliths he had ever seen, each with muscles that rippled under hardened scales. He wondered if he ought to come back with more people, try to insist that Avernum's army come with him somehow. But there was no way an army could sneak in like they'd been able to. And they'd heard the stories, and had already fought through the temple where these sliths' priests practiced horrifying sacrifices. The sliths in this throne room were decorated with vile trophies, some of which Nathan didn't want to guess what they were. Somebody had to put a stop to these horrors.

And they were going to get paid very well for this, too.

The fight became a rapid blur as they managed to take out many of the beasts in the first charge, but then it seemed to stretch into an eternity. At some point, both Derek and Nathan were facing Sss-Thsss, but it took both of them to parry his incredible strength. Warren was trying to plug him with arrows, but Sss-Thsss' armor, natural and artificial, meant they did less harm than one would've expected. Sss-Thsss issued punishing blows in quick succession, breathing heavily, but not as heavily as all of them.

Ribaldi's panting slowed after he downed a restoring potion. Finally he had strength to cast healing and shielding spells as he had at the start of the battle. The tide turned. Several minutes of desperate melee later, the slith king whose name cast a shadow of terror was himself cast onto the floor of his throne room, dead as its stones.

But his armor and weapons, and those of his guards, were of excellent quality, and generally intact, and there was plenty of other plunder around here.

They were going to be paid very, very well for this.

Nathan, Warren, Derek, and Ribaldi, looked at each other and laughed as they gathered the haul. On the way back to town, they traded healing potions and rude impersonations of Sss-Thsss' final moments.

* * *

15 Years after Albert's Exile

Northeast of Hectar, Isle of Bigail, Surface

"Do many of your clan want to live on the surface?" Albert asked Frruh, not sure what sort of answer he wanted to hear.

Frruh answered, "I can't be certain. There is not presently a great desire in my clan. But if we actually could live without being molested by the Empire - well. It could change things. How about you, Sschass? Would many of Gnass wish to live here instead?"

Sschass was lying on his back, head near the fire, looking up at the stars. "We haven't seriously considered it before. The surface was alien to us. It was possible we couldn't survive here, like the vahnati - quite a relief that turned out not to be true! It's very different from home - so much light, so much more life - but I am coming to love it. The abundant heat from the sun - it's just like - well."

Albert almost didn't want to ask. But he was curious. And this creature, so different from him, was a friend. And nobody was asking, though he could tell they all wanted to.

"Like what?" Albert finally said.

Sschass took so long to answer that Albert wondered if he was being ignored, but Sschass finally said, "How I imagine our homeland to be."

Albert blinked. "Your homeland? I thought you lived in Gnass." It was like the rest of Avernum - lightless. And the way that both friendly and unfriendly sliths stayed near fires, he thought they found it chilly in the caves.

Sschass made a thoughtful hiss. "Yes, I grew up there. I meant our ancestral homeland." He turned his head towards Albert and said quietly, "We are exiles, too."

Helen had been lying down, but abruptly pushed herself up on an elbow and exclaimed, "l never knew! How terrible!"

Sschass shook his head and made a chopping motion with his hand. "Appreciated, but we do not deserve your sympathy. Many of your number did not deserve exile. All of my ancestors did. The utter barbarity of the sliths who hate Avernum - they've been honing it ever since they were cast out. Sss-thsss, who aligned his clan with a demon in the hopes of gaining power, their rapacity - this was typical of our exiled selves." He took a shuddering, hissing breath. "This shame - it - please, do not speak of it."

Albert tried to peer out into the darkness, away from what had just been said, but couldn't help shuddering. If their positions were exchanged, not only would the shame keep him from talking, but fear would seal his lips. Enough Avernites were already sure the slithzerikai of Gnass were of one piece with the barbarians. This history would cement such thinking.

Helen sat up, turned to stir the fire, then said, "But you changed, didn't you? At least, the people of Gnass did."

Sschass agreed, "Yes, and for this repentance the other exiled slithzerikai hate us the more. And there is no way to be sure we can ever be received into our ancient homeland. So we built Gnass, and we try to live as slithzerikai should."

Frruh asked, "So, your people are from other caves originally?"

Sschass agreed, "Deeper ones. The stories say it's warmer there. More food. I never thought any land in this life could be better than what I heard in the stories. But the surface - the sun, the moon, the stars, such beauty I never heard of in those tales. There is warmth and food. Up here, we could also live as slithzerikai should. It would be a strange thought for many, but, perhaps."

* * *

Later that evening, Helen was praying while keeping watch. The others were asleep, except for Sschass, she noticed. He was pacing around the campfire, staring at the darkness around them or the stars overhead.

"It's not your watch," she reminded him.

He gave a short "ss" which she gathered was an acknowledgement. Then he looked more directly at her and asked, "Do you ever have doubts, Helen?"

"About God?" she asked.

He nodded, still deep in thought.

"I get that a lot," she explained. "I always want to say no. But I was just talking to God about my doubts - it'd be a bad idea to lie about them to you. I've wondered if God cares. If He's just. If He's even there."

"After the hospital?" he inquired softly.

"For a long time," Helen said with a catch. "The hospital is a rather," she paused, then, getting hold of herself, finished, "rather vivid reminder of the true state of the world. But I've wondered for much longer." Visibly putting her feelings aside, she asked, "Have you had doubts?"

Sschass was still for a bit, then said, "I thought I believed. But the wicked slithzerikai make me doubt God's justice. You mentioned that just now, didn't you?" She nodded. Sschass continued, "I heard rumors that there are some wicked ones who have infiltrated Upper Avernum somehow. Rumors that some adventurers will have to fight them. All of you have had to fight your own kind. I have for years, I can do it again. But lately, I've been wondering, why are there so few good slithzerikai to fight the wicked, if God is good? Why, here on the surface, are there so few left to stand and fight, and so many monsters devouring innocents?"

Helen smiled sadly at him. "Whenever I asked my mentor that sort of question, he always said that if there were a simple answer, we'd know it already." She looked off into the distance and said, "So annoying." She turned back to Sschass and said wryly, "The answer, not him. Most of the time! He was kind. I just don't like unsolvable problems."

"And this is one," Sschass said simply.

She nodded, not having anything left to say. It was time to wake Frruh for the next watch, anyhow.

* * *

Author's Note: I may be misremembering whether Avernum 3's quest about fighting some wicked slithzerikai is supposed to occur in Upper Avernum or Avernum. I don't recall the exact nature of the quest, or whether it was in Exile 3 as well as Avernum 3, or whether it was a new quest that exists only in Avernum 3.

Much of this chapter is my interpretation of backstory to Exile 1 / Avernum 1 and Avernum 3, but especially based on backstory revealed in a bonus dungeon that exists only in Avernum 1, Lost Bahisskava.


	8. Reforged

15 Years after Albert's Exile

Outside the Filth Factory, Isle of Bigail, Surface

"Quick, out of the smoke," Albert hurried them on. Everyone looked back from time to time, but the quickfire they had unleashed from the Pheonix Egg had finally stopped spreading. The smell was appalling, but once they got upwind, they began to realize that they had made it out alive, and another monster factory was demolished.

As they walked back to town, Albert commented aloud, "I never thought I'd have friendly giant spiders or friendly giant roaches to thank for a victory. But I do, and that's that. Life sure is funny."

Sschass said thoughtfully, "I hope the friendly roaches will stay in hiding. It'll remain hard for them to convince anyone of their friendliness."

Albert swallowed. He hadn't thought of that.

Helen agreed, "I wanted to treat them and the spiders as friends, but it was so hard being used to seeing them attacking me."

"Ah," Sschass agreed.

After a moment, Helen asked suspiciously, "What is it, Sschass?"

Sschass stated with mischievous honesty, "Really, the spiders looked rather tasty to me."

Albert and Helen shouted in disgust, while Frruh made a hacking noise.

"You mammals," Sschass chuckled, "so finicky. It's a wonder you survive in the caves!"

Helen desperately adjusted the subject by agreeing, "Yes, the food is much better up here. And there's so much of it! So many kinds! There are actually different types of vegetables to eat, instead of just mushrooms! Actual different textures and tastes!"

"That alone definitely makes it worth it," Albert agreed. "Domesticated meat - I've almost never gotten any in all my life, and up here, there's finally a chance of it!"

Frruh said thoughtfully, "And the area around Fort Emergence is sparsely populated enough for good hunting, too."

Helen admitted, "I don't really feel like I deserve such bounty. We're always practically starving back in Avernum!" She threw up her hands. "I guess we just have to keep exploring so someday we can get enough of us here so we can ship good food down there."

"Me, I'm staying up here," Albert disagreed.

"But you still could do that," Helen noted. "You could be a farmer up here and sell food to people still living in Avernum."

"And they'd pay a lot for it, too - I like your thinking," he said, grinning at her.

"You wouldn't be an extortionist," she threatened with clear irritation. "You'd charge a fair price."

"And this food would be worth a lot," he agreed. "We are agreeing, you know."

"We are not, we most certainly are not," she said through gritted teeth.

* * *

One and a Half Years Before Albert's Exile

Fort Remote

Nathan wondered which of the smells was the more horrible; the sulfur, or the last few tendrils of smoke rising from the bodies of those poor souls who had been defending this place. Just last month, Nathan and the others had passed through the fort on their way elsewhere. It had been a sleepy little frontier outpost, just like his old posting on the surface.

Only now there was no one left alive. Walls were breached, and enormous soot stains marred floors, then climbed up walls and ceilings to stand vigil over the fallen.

Derek shook his head. "Grah-Hoth did this from prison? That must be some leak in the bottle."

Ribaldi said angrily, "That false king may've directed some of his minions here as well."

Warren spoke out of his frustration at finding only pocket change still salvageable on the slain men (naturally, he still kept the change): "Nathan, tell me you're not seriously thinking of taking him on."

Nathan quickly dismissed the idea of pretending he didn't know who "he" was. "Warren, we should really be more concerned about the here and now. For instance, keeping alert so we aren't crushed by any demons taking a victory lap."

Warren was not so easily diverted. "I saw the way King Micah was considering us," he said. "We got paid well for taking out Sss-thsss, it's true. Even if we did have to give up that lovely gold-leaf torc as proof he was dead. But we don't owe these people anything."

"A knife and five coins," Derek deadpanned.

Warren humphed, "They can have twice that before we face something this dangerous," spreading his arms to encompass the desolation.

Ribaldi pointed out, "If Grah-Hoth does escape and reclaims Avernum, everyone left will be tortured for sport. Nevertheless, though the Almighty can save by many or by few, I should like to be more sure we few are the ones who should be facing this evil."

"Then say your prayers, Father," Nathan said gruffly, "because Warren's right, we're going to be asked. But I have a feeling about King Micah. He's not the sort to ask us to throw our lives away. And he does pay as well as anyone in this dirt-poor place can."

Derek added, "Also, no torture for sport."

"Another plus," Nathan agreed, returning Derek's grin. Ribaldi chuckled while Warren folded his arms.

Ribaldi held out his hands palms up to appease Warren, saying, "Now, now, my son. I have heard some legends of a sword called Demonslayer-"

"And how much was somebody charging for this sword?" Warren finished skeptically.

"I heard it was broken," Ribaldi finished shortly, "and so even once we find it, it would need reforging."

Warren sighed heavily.

Nathan clapped him on the back and said, "If we get the mission, maybe we'll hear stories of where to look for it. But that's all the future - forget it for now, Warren."

* * *

Underground Fort

Warren shivered as they marched towards the spectrally chilled crypt within the fort, asking, "I get it, we're going to fight a bunch of demons, and their big, bad, boss. But is Demonslayer really worth all this trouble?"

The others charged the undead inside, and he hustled to follow.

* * *

Slith Temple

Warren coughed out some blood - he had been stabbed in the face by a now-deceased slith - and as Ribaldi healed him, he commented, "I mean, I'm just saying, Demonslayer had better be a big help."

* * *

Crypt of Drath

"Wouldn't have wanted," Warren panted as he kicked away a last, twitching, skeletal arm, "to have chased around Avernum for something unimportant."

"Well, it is important," Nathan told him shortly.

"Mmhmm," Warren returned brightly. "Good. That's all I'm saying. It'd better be helpful."

* * *

Fort Draco

Boutell the smith picked up Demonslayer, reforged from the pieces the adventurers had found, and held it out hilt-forward, to Nathan. "This," Boutell said reverently, "has been a true honor, sir, and I thank you. It is the culmination of my life's work. So long have I heard the stories - and now I am a part of them."

Ribaldi surreptitiously kicked Warren before the latter's mouth got all the way open.

"I'm honored also, sir," Nathan told him, looking down its length and swinging it slightly. "It's wonderful, thank you. The time to use it is near. We'll never forget you, Boutell."

Of course, they also didn't forget to pay him.

* * *

Author's Note: I love Demonslayer, love the quest to get its pieces, and love helping Boutell participate in its storied history. Warren, however, has a very different perspective on the world than I do.

I'm fairly sure that Boutell does charge for his labor in reforging Demonslayer. He did a lot of work on it, and he does need to eat.


	9. Dragons

1 Year Before Albert's Exile

Cave of Pyrog, Avernum

Ribaldi hurled another javelin at Pyrog while Nathan and Derek tried to get in a good hit on its flanks. Even Derek's strength wasn't penetrating the scales much, but both of them were causing injury to the dragon, and it was often trying to get its claws on Derek. The creature, of course, was incredibly intelligent, and it kept its eyes on the other humans as well, which is why Ribaldi felt his legs pumping to avoid the fire it hurled back at him - but his back still took a terrible burn.

Warren wondered what sound the dragon was making, almost too much to tumble forward properly as it suddenly spat fire at him. Then it spoke, and he knew it was laughter.

"Humansss!" Pyrog chuckled as he raked Derek with a hind leg, thankfully with only a glancing blow. "Your hair is dissgusssting, but I love ssmoking your meat in it!" He had whipped his tail at Nathan, in what turned out to be a maneuver to force him closer to Pyrog's head. Pyrog's teeth snapped just inches from Nathan's face as he hurriedly scrambled back, but this time Pyrog's tail caught him on the shoulder, so he grunted in pain.

* * *

Some time later, the adventurers returned from the rear caverns where they had been looting the dragon's treasure. Coming back to its main cavern, they took a moment to gaze on its corpse.

"We didn't really manage that, did we?" Warren asked.

"We've gotten stronger," Derek said, looking meaningfully at Nathan.

Ribaldi, staring sternly at Pyrog's corpse, stated, "God did not wish for this creature to go on with its murders."

Derek suggested, "Maybe this is a sign. Maybe God doesn't want Grah-Hoth to go on with his murders."

Ribaldi said thoughtfully, "Or Emperor Hawthorne to go on with his." He fingered the chalcedony brooch that had been among the dragon's treasures. Once they had gathered the other brooches, they'd be so much closer to smiting an emperor who had caused so much suffering.

Nathan said to them all, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Remember, I said once we're strong enough to take down Pyrog, we would next try to help with whatever's gone wrong at the Tower of Magi. One step at a time."

Warren sighed. "I can't believe I let you talk me into this. Now we're dragonslayers, too."

Nathan stuffed in most of his own sigh and said, "Remember, Warren, you have to let us know where your great brain has carried you before you say things."

Warren gesticulated, "We're dragonslayers, carrying a legendary blade (Demonslayer, in case you forgot,)" (Derek rolled his eyes, but Warren continued,) "and now we seem to be going on epic quests. Kill Grah-Hoth. Kill the emperor. Kill something in the Tower of Magi nobody wants to talk about. I don't want to run around killing things. I don't want everyone knowing who I am."

Derek asked with lifted eyebrow, "Because you're light-fingered?"

"Can you prove it?" Warren challenged.

"If you respond like that, I don't have to," Derek replied.

Without further response, Warren returned to his original train of thought, "I don't care about going down in history, I care about not going down today."

Nathan responded, "We're doing that by being careful. By not biting off more than we can chew. I didn't set out to be a hero, either, and if a hero is somebody who never gets hurt or tired, and can win in any situation, and always does the right thing - well, we all know we aren't heroes. But killing things is the best way we've found to earn money. Doesn't say a lot about us, but it's true. Let's at least make it so we kill things that make life worse for other folk." He was running out of things to say that he hadn't said already, and Warren looked unconvinced still, so he finally said, "Besides, Warren, think of all the places we still have to go to win these fights. We just might find a way to escape."

Warren groaned, "I'll say it, I'll say it - you're right." He gave a cynical grin and commented, "This work does pay well, even if I do keep almost dying."

* * *

15 Years After Albert's Exile

Sulfras' New Lair, Surface

A dragon curved her great neck down to peer at Albert, Frruh, Sschass, and Helen. "Ah, come in, Avernites. What brings you to the lair of Sulfras?" She smiled toothily.

"Wise Sulfras," Sschass said, stepping forward. "Greetings to you. We have come with a sad mission. We found something in the strange factory which made the giant roaches plaguing the island of Bigail. There were dragon scales there. Mages of Avernum have confirmed this. It is our sad duty to ask whether you or any of your siblings have been the ones to make the monsters."

The dragon chuckled, "Ah, well met, conquerors! So you were able to stop the roaches, as you were the slimes." Albert blinked, and Sulfras's smile widened. "I have my ways of finding things out. My siblings and I preceded you to the surface, but we weren't hasty. We looked before we came, and we keep our eyes open here."

Albert swallowed back his impatience with a realistic glance at the dragon's bulk. If he had to fight her, he would - but not for nothing. He finally said, "Sulfras, we aren't here to blame you, but our commander expects us to return with an answer."

Sulfras pulled back her head. "You think you've seen the problems on the surface, don't you? There's more you must see. Go to the small cave, just off this one, behind me. Kill the creatures you find there. Then you will know my answer."

* * *

"What are those things?" Sschass asked in astonishment, glancing at Albert.

"They have no name," Albert said slowly. "They don't - there's nothing like them, they shouldn't exist."

They were most like wolves, coats of grey and black - but wolves with heads on the level of a tall man's, with enormous jaws and long teeth. Their bodies were rippling with muscle and set on six powerful legs. The beasts were contained, but immediately ready to attack the adventurers the moment they set foot in the smaller cave. They had, as Albert discovered to his disgust, heads that could swivel impossibly on their necks, the better to tear at their prey.

Afterwards, Albert was leaning against a rock wall, even after Helen healed his wounds. They were all gasping for breath - and that was after fighting only three.

* * *

Sulfras commented, "You see now what lies ahead. Much further ahead, in northern Valorim. But ahead. They are quite possibly the reasons why the Empress left her throne to personally resolve the matter, though perhaps the troglodytes or giants would've convinced her, too."

Albert sucked in a breath. The Empress had come to this backwater continent?

But Sulfras was continuing, "I captured those alien beasts on a hunting expedition. And if you can convince my siblings to help, we will forge you a weapon to help fight them. In any case, you have the answer of the dragons, and you may take it to your commander."


	10. Horses

Roughly 16 Years After Albert's Exile

Feral's Farm, Delan (NW of Krizsan), Surface

Feral chewed the blade of grass that stuck out of his mouth as he talked with Albert. Sschass plucked a nearby blade of grass and chewed it to try to see the appeal, but he could discern none, and quickly spat it out.

Meanwhile, Feral was saying, "Yep, I got four real good horses right now. Almost a shame, but I'm looking to sell. And if you folks are gonna be traveling far, horses are your best friends."

Albert's eyes were alight as he asked, "How much?"

After swishing the blade of grass back and forth a moment, Feral said, "Two thousand coins."

Helen went pale, Sschass began to cough, and Frruh yowled, but Albert grabbed Feral's hand and said, "Done."

"Sure," said Feral, seeming slightly off balance. He said quickly to the others, "They're real good. Good horseflesh, you might say!" He chuckled a bit, then ended it awkwardly when no one joined in.

Albert was already engaged counting out the coins on the steps of the farm. It took a long time to count two thousand coins, and Helen had plenty of time to lean down and whisper tightly, "What did you just do?"

"Bought horses," Albert said, grinning as he kept counting. "Oh, you are going to love them."

"I wonder how you know that," she whispered more tightly. "Since you didn't bother to ask me. Or any of us."

Albert, finally realizing this was not the highlight of her day, asked, "What is your problem?"

He suddenly found that Sschass was whispering in his other ear, "Our problem is that you are counting two thousand coins of our money that we earned together!"

Albert finally stood and looked around, and saw Frruh still standing. Frruh strode close and said softly, "We haven't even seen these animals!"

Feral tried to put confidence into his voice, but some of it leaked out, as he said slightly too loudly in their general direction, "Why don't we go down to the pasture and lookit 'em?"

Helen whispered tautly, "Why don't we tell him we've reconsidered?"

Albert's eyes flitted back and forth as he whispered, "We shook hands."

"We didn't," Helen said, growing rigid.

Albert said appeasingly, "Think how long it takes us to go back and forth to report to Commander Anaximander, and it'll only get longer the further we explore. On horses, we'll fly like the wind."

"This would've been something that was good to hear a few minutes ago," Helen noted, unmollified.

Feral walked a few steps closer and said with both forced and genuine brightness, "It's only a short step out to the pasture. Y'all can go see'm and take in some of the beautiful scenery here. Oh, there's a nice little pond out there, and a fine view of the mountains in the distance. And, well, even if I say so myself, they are bea-au-ti-ful horses. Fine breeds, all of 'em."

They went out to the pasture, partly because Feral was so intent on hurrying them that Albert stopped counting the money to pay him and gathered it up quickly. Once there, they did see the four horses, and Helen noted sourly to herself that they were indeed magnificent animals. Why couldn't they be crummy when needed? The adventurers began to mill about, trying to work out how to approach the horses, and wondering which to pick.

Sschass tried to take hold of a horse so it would stop rearing when Frruh came near. Albert was going to help, but Feral loudly asked for him to come help get the saddles from the barn - "Those two look like they've got this." Albert thought this a stretch, as Sschass nearly tripped trying in vain to catch up to the horse, and Frruh hadn't yet even tried to mount, instead standing and folding his arms with his fur unconsciously on end, but Albert didn't have any better ideas. After they were a fair bit away, Feral said, "Albert, I didn't mean to cause an upset-"

"Oh, no, you didn't," Albert said quickly.

"Y'all can sleep on it, y'know, it's a lot of money-" Feral tried again.

"They're worth it," Albert assured him hastily.

"I know it, Albert, I know it," Feral sighed. Finally, he said, "Thing is, Albert, they are worth it, and that's why I wanted 'em to go to a good home. To folks what love and respect and can handle them. I shoulda asked ya 'afore - ever you had a horse?"

"No," Albert admitted, "but I always wanted one. A whole herd, so all my friends and I could ride one."

He looked about without realizing he was, and finally found Helen, standing near a rough-hewn fence of the pasture. She was looking away from him and from the others, at something across the distance. He wondered why she jerked her sleeve across her face before realizing she was wiping angry tears.

Albert abruptly swung his head back to face Feral, who politely ignored seeing any of this and said slowly, "They're fine beasts, but they take a lot of feed and care. You seem to be the only one comfortable with animals in your group, and it upsets the horses a bit. You're all a capable lot - you said you've been traveling and sleeping in the open, and you're careful. But this is like having four new friends. They'll defend you, but you needta defend them: from bandits tryin' to steal them, 'n' monsters tryin' to eat 'em."

Meanwhile, Frruh had gotten fairly close before the horses balked, but they did, rearing slightly. Sschass sighed, "I'm sure it's the scent. But even having you approach from upwind isn't helping."

Frruh glared at the horses and said, "How? Their odor drowns all others." He waved his hand dismissively and told Sschass, "Let's just tell him we'll walk."

Sschass had finally gotten one of the horses to accept him moving his hand down her flanks as Feral had shown them, and told Frruh, "If you want to crush Albert's soul, you go right ahead."

"At the moment, I don't particularly care about that," Frruh fumed.

"He is right - we'd be much more effective on these," Sschass pointed out. "I'm upset with him, too, but the problem is with him, not with these beasts."

"We'll be much more effective if I can ever get aboard one of these beasts," Frruh returned. "Otherwise, it's a walking pace still."

It was a few minutes later that Albert was returning with Feral and the last load of saddles. Feral was saying, "Why don't you folks sleep on it? If you help me a bit with the stables, I'll show ya' more about them horses, and give ya room n'board. In the morning, you can go on yer' way, or you can buy 'em then."

Albert looked up and saw Helen absently stroking the withers of one of the horses, which appeared quite calm. It was a sight he wanted to preserve in his memory forever. But he didn't deserve it. And she didn't deserve having to make the best of his mistakes. Sure, all four of them seemed to spend a lot of their time making the best of each others' mistakes, but that just meant he had to try to lighten their load.

"That sounds great, Feral. Thank you, and, I'm sorry," Albert told him firmly.

They strode towards the horses, and while Feral busied himself with saddling one of the horses, Albert said to his friends, "I'm sorry. I was in the wrong. Feral's agreed to let us make the final decision in the morning." He swiveled his head slowly to look each of them. "I wouldn't even be alive, much less earned a small part of that money, without each of you, and I had no right to spend it on what I wanted without a word to you."

Helen sighed, putting her forehead against the horse's flank so she wouldn't have to look at him. "I wish I hadn't said some of what I did," she admitted. "Or maybe just the way I said it. You usually have been leading us right. Don't know how it happened, just from day one you were the natural leader. But it was because you knew we were all free people working together for a common goal. So I apologize, too, and accept your apology -but it's my turn to make a condition. Don't lead us like that again. Even if you have to make a hard call I won't like - at least think about how it'll affect us."

Frruh squinted at her and said, "You know that's impossible, right? To really anticipate how any of us will take any decision? Besides, it's the hard calls that make someone mad."

"Definitely impossible," Albert agreed. "But you'll all feel better if I at least say I'll try, right?"

Frruh harrumphed, "Debatable."

Albert hung his head and balled his fists, then swallowed, relaxed, and looked up, and said, "Frruh, tell me - please - what I need to do make this right."

"You're doing it," muttered Frruh, "that's why I'm so grumpy."

"What?" Albert asked, having trouble hearing Frruh, who was standing some distance away from them and the horses.

"Feral, did you want to say something?" Frruh asked, raising his voice to be heard over the distance.

Albert lowered his head, but Sschass clapped Albert on the shoulder, saying, "Let's learn something about these animals so we can make an informed decision."

Feral showed them how to fasten the next two saddles. Frruh finally called out to them, "Feral, it's not fair to put you through any more. I can't abide the horses' scent, and vice versa. I'll walk."

"You don't have to do that!" Helen exclaimed.

Frruh walked closer to a horse, which neighed, put its ears back, then began to walk away. Frruh looked pointedly at Helen. Helen was slightly irritated, but also wondered if she'd have to eat her words.

Feral, however, coaxed the horse back towards Frruh, saying, "They just ain't used to nephilim. Just needs to learn you're friendly. I'll bet Rover here'll love you if ya feed him." The horse Feral was leading had relaxed its ears, and then began to move his neck and head oddly. Feral removed something from his pocket, and Frruh realized Rover had been trying to get it. Feral handed the object to Frruh, saying, "No, no, Rover, not now, Frruh's gonna feed you today."

The horse neighed and backed up a pace as Frruh observed the object, fresh, with long stalks, and an enormous orange root - "This is a carrot, isn't it?" Frruh asked.

Frruh and Rover regarded the vegetable, equally dubious, but at Feral's insistence, Frruh proffered the vegetable, and Rover finally took it. Once decided, Rover yanked it out of Frruh's hands, surprising the nephilim. Despite this, Frruh saw Rover chewed it slowly, perhaps with relish. Feral said warmly, "Rover's always been a sucker for food - but maybe it comes in handy here, fer makin' friends."

Albert murmured to Helen, "I feel terrible. None of you have to do this for me."

Helen murmured back, "We decided to on our own. Without telling you. We're doing it for your sake, like it or not. And because it was getting old walking back and forth. And maybe a little because Chestnut here has a beautiful coat. Now help me up into his saddle, please."

And he did. And they somehow convinced Rover to seat Frruh, half an hour later. Feral taught them the basics of riding, then had them practice a bit. Sschass accidentally scratched Derby with the scales on his arm, but that didn't prevent the duo from winning an impromptu race across the pasture.

All of them had a beautiful ride back to the barn as the sun set. Albert turned back in his saddle and saw Helen framed against the rosy sky, an enormous smile on her face as she leaned forward to tousle Chestnut's mane.

It was harder than any of them expected to do all the steps of putting away the horses' gear, cleaning the horses, and setting out the enormous, heavy quantities of food the animals needed. It wasn't totally clear that Rover was quite used to Frruh, or that Albert's admiration for Midnight would overcome the cramped muscles in Albert's own legs from just a few hours' riding. So the four adventurers had a lot to talk and think about.

But when the morning came, they and Feral and the horses were all richer, even though the Avernites were two thousand coins poorer. They set out on their horses, happy and proud and laughing together. And Rover only shied from Frruh's inept patting twice that whole day.

* * *

Author's Note: Feral may be out of character (I don't recall what he's supposed to be like,) and in the game, horses are not as complicated to take care of as I'm having Feral say. (In real life, they're probably far more complicated - I have little direct experience with them, but have heard others discuss caring for them.) In Avernum, horses are not actually attacked or stolen, and they don't need feeding - I assume they are feeding on Valorim's abundant grasslands. Also, no one needs riding lessons, the horses don't complain about any race, and I'm not sure you can sleep at Feral's. This chapter is based on thinking through things that role-playing games (and other games and stories) sometimes leave to the players' imaginations, not canonical game mechanics.


	11. Sea of Soulless Armor

Roughly 16 Years After Albert's Exile

Barrier Cavern, Surface

Albert, Sschass, Helen, and Frruh hurried into the massive cavern, stretching five times a man's height, and reaching long and broad enough for the troglodyte and giant armies to pose in formation at its far ends. It was enormous - by surface standards.

There was occasional echoes of the shouting of the troglodytes and giants as they challenged, provoked, and taunted each other across the cavern. Occasionally, a combatant would bang a sword against a shield, or throw a boulder or a javelin at the translucent magical barriers stretched before both groups, but all for naught - the barriers held the peace between these ancient enemies, and kept them away from the Avernites inside.

The crystal generating the barriers, and the target of the Avernites' attack, sat serenely on a pedestal in the middle of the cavern. It wasn't very large, but it was producing a fair bit of light. The unassuming crystal was guarded by a single warrior, clad head to toe in plate mail.

"What is that thing doing here?" Helen asked grimly.

Now that she had said that, Albert recognized the armor. That wasn't a warrior. That was a doomguard. And now that he was looking for it, he saw what his friends had meant about the ones Erika had made - it wasn't breathing.

Albert took a moment to force himself to start breathing. He looked it over, then looked over his friends and himself, tempered by their adventures on the surface, and said, "We can take this thing, but we need to be ready. Everyone ready?"

They all agreed, and then they moved forward.

Albert could almost see the blows he needed to make, every skillful sinew singing in him. As he anticipated, the doomguard blocked his first stroke, but the second, the one Albert really meant to connect, did, cleanly, penetrating the armor at just the right spot. His gut couldn't be prepared despite the warnings - he saw the whole creature's body flow, split and divide in moments, and then there were two doomguards, one facing him, the other quickly turning and batting aside Sschass' spearpoint.

Sschass intentionally tangled his two-tined spear in the doomguard's claws, using this leverage to twist the doomguard's arm unnaturally, but it gave no cry of pain. He extricated the spear and rammed it into his chosen point on the doomguard - and then there were three doomguards.

Frruh raked all the doomguards at once with lightning - and then there were six.

"Helen, bless and shield us, and Frruh, haste us!' Albert called. Helen had been planning that already, and did so - her own offensive spells were not as effective as Frruh's, and would've just made more doomguards. Albert and Sschass couldn't block the new doomguards in the large hall, and so both foes pressed in on Frruh and Helen. She struggled to keep hold of the physical shield she bore, wincing at the powerful blows and clangor of metal on metal. Frruh moved his own shield and dodged as he noted, "The new ones are definitely smaller!"

Albert managed a strike at one of the new ones, and it split off a smaller doomguard yet - but it was still quite a bit taller than he'd have liked.

Helen stumbled as a doomguard hammered on her shield. She was able to finish healing Frruh, but a doomguard caught her on the back, and she shouted in pain. Albert looked back in alarm, but the doomguards were hemming them all in, and she was already beside him, so there wasn't much more he could do. Thankfully, her chainmail had blocked the worst of the assault, but still! They were about to drown in a sea of soulless armor.

"Back to back!" he shouted. "And focus on the hurt ones!"

"Right," Sschass grunted in agreement, striking a thunderous blow against one of the smaller doomguards on his side, despite the many wounds on his shoulder and the outer side of one of his arms. He at least forced the doomguard and its developing copy to give way, so Helen and Frruh managed to get their backs against Albert and Sschass.

Frruh forced himself to focus on his movements despite the pain from new injuries, and a small but fierce bolt of flame catapulted from his hands, driving through a weak point in the doomguard just created from Sschass' last stroke. Immediately afterward, two doomguards caught him on the helmet. He fell to the ground, ears ringing, coughing up blood.

The doomguard he had struck crumbled into uselessness. As the first of the doomguards fell, the portcullis began to open.

Albert risked a glance back at Frruh, curbing the lift of his heart. All of them were still moments from death. "We'll have to take them all!" he shouted.

Helen wanted to shake him awake, tell him he was being unreasonable - but he wasn't, they were surrounded by a crowd of doomguards, who hadn't let up their assault. So she instead healed Frruh, as best as she quickly could, and forced her tired arm to hold her shield higher as the things hammered on it again.

Albert managed to take one of the smaller doomguards next, then Sschass. Frruh, clawed again by several doomguards, summoned all his will to make a small, perfect, incredible bolt of flame, and brought down another small doomguard.

Swallowing hard, Albert next brought his blade to bear on one of the older doomguards - there were no more very little ones. He forced back together his quailing heart as his target divided into two targets, then split in two again on his next blow. In a moment, he was glad - Frruh brought all four down with a spray of lightning.

The Avernties were panting, streaming mingled blood and sweat, but the ring of doomguards was now on the ebb tide, and the jetsam of their stony remains was soon all that was left.

"We did it," Sschass breathed as they healed each other.

Albert pointed over a shoulder with his thumb at one of the barriers and said wryly, "Good, now there's just two more armies to beat." Helen and the others laughed.

After they had healed themselves, Sschass sized the crystal up, then thrust one of the tines of his spear into it. The crystal cracked, and he hit it again, and it crumbled. Instantly, the barriers holding the armies back collapsed. Both sides made guttural exclamations of surprise, then, shouting gleefully, charged their ancient foes on the opposite side of the cavern. The adventurers, having anticipated this, ran towards the tunnel through which they had come, whose opening was in the center of the cavern.

Albert gave a glance over his shoulder as he ran, feeling that something was wrong, and saw that his friends had not all started to run - Sschass still hunched by the pedestal in the middle of the cavern, gathering crystal shards. Albert squawked in disbelief and shouted, "Sschass, come on!" The giants' rocks were already whizzing over Sschass' head towards the oncoming troglodytes, but at least one had been meant for Sschass himself.

Sschass put the fragments in a pouch and started running from his crouching position. Frruh and Helen had already turned back, hearing Albert's shout. Albert now turned back himself. A few troglodytes began to hurl javelins at Sschass. Frruh hasted Sschass, then the rest of the team. Sschass caught up to them just as the vans of the armies began a gleeful melee. The adventurers ran down the tunnel through which they had come in. Sschass faced behind them at first, spear pointed outwards. However, they were followed only by sounds of war cries from the battle behind them. Now that he thought about it, although the troglodyte javelins had been harrowing at the time, more of them had probably been meant for the oncoming giants.

Once they were safely outside, Sschass said, "Look," and he took the pouch off his waist, then poured the crystal shards he'd been able to carry into his scaly palm. The shards gleamed in the light, but no longer had energy of their own.

Helen said wryly, "Your girl's lucky! You went and got her a pretty present in the middle of that mess!"

"Ss, ss," Sschass hissed sarcastically as Albert laughed. After a moment, Sschass said, "It looks like the crystals the vahnati are supposed to use. We should get the Bunker to verify this."

"It did look like a vahnati crystal, and I thought that myself when we first saw it," Frruh agreed. "Of course, crystals are used by more than just vahnati."

Helen said skeptically, "The vahnati have strange, powerful magic, but could they really rip that lot," she gestured behind them, "out of history? That is incredible power."

Sschass shrugged and said, "There is much we don't know about them."

Albert shook his head, saying, "Sure, the vahnati hate the Empire, but we're allies - they would've told us, especially knowing we were going to the surface. They helped us make the teleporter to get here - they wouldn't leave out something this big."

Sschass sighed and agreed, "It does seem unlikely they'd put us in that kind of danger."

Helen supplied, "Honestly, when we saw the doomguard, I thought that was more evidence implicating Erika. But I shouldn't have leapt to conclusions - other powerful mages can make them. Right, Frruh?" He nodded.

Sschass mused aloud, "I wonder if we will find more clues if we find another monster lair?"

Albert groaned, then added, "We haven't gotten paid for this one yet!"

They started walking to the grove where they had left the horses (untied, in case giants or troglodytes came upon the animals.) Frruh, after being pensive some time, said aloud, "We may find more clues in another lair. But I begin to wonder if some other party is planting all these clues, to watch us doubt and fight each other."

Helen replied, "It'd be a good strategy. But at some point, one party does have to be responsible, and you can't conceal everything from everyone. We'll have to keep looking, and see what the Bunker says about what we know now, thanks to Sschass."

As the adventurers approached their horses, Rover tossed his mane and whinnied. The other horses looked up, and they all started ambling towards them.

Frruh threw up his hands and said, "Rover still doesn't like me."

Helen insisted, "He was happy to see you," and Albert put in, "Exactly."

Frruh finally allowed, "An alternate explanation." And at least Rover didn't shy away when he put his hand through his mane as Albert had shown him.

* * *

Some days later, Albert, Helen, Frruh, and Sschass neared Ghikra, the settlement of their vahnati allies in Upper Avernum. Though the vahnati had expressed reticence about venturing onto the surface, since they were convinced the sun would harm them, they wanted to be on hand to maintain the teleporter they had helped make, and explore the caves of Upper Avernum.

On the road there, a vahnati patrol gave them a friendly greeting. Such patrols were needed to help combat the goblins who had somehow made homes in Upper Avernum. In fact, a few months ago, Albert and the others had helped a different vahnati patrol face off against a goblin force.

Ghikra was a settlement of intriguing life and color. The vahnati were tall and thin, grey-skinned, with bulbous black eyes, and were clad in robes and ponchos of various colors. Though they clearly loved raiment, they rarely wore hats or helmets. They appeared frail and harmless to those who ignored the peculiar waveblades and razordisks at the sides of their warriors, or who had not seen them unleashing fierce beasts from magical crystals during the war against the Empire. The architecture, like that in the vahnati homelands below Avernum, consisted of pale blue domes, whose interiors held furniture suited to vahnati limbs, and ornate rugs.

The group took their time, chatting with vahnati children and other passerby, purchasing vahnati armaments in the marketplace, and contemplating magical secrets from their mages. However, they eventually sensed that they could put off their errand no longer. They reluctantly took the ultimate matter to Rentar-Ihrno, a vahnati incantatrix whom rumor placed in the same league of power as Erika Redmark.

"Avernites, welcome to Ghikra!" Rentar-Ihrno said as she saw them. "And wait, you are the new team chosen to explore the surface, are you not? A privilege. I am Rentar-Ihrno."

The warm welcome calmed their nerves, and they returned the respectful cordiality of her greeting. Her accent was strong, but her vocabulary and enunciation was excellent, so it was easy to understand her.

Albert said to her, "Rentar-Ihrno, we come with something delicate to ask about."

"Please continue," Rentar-Ihrno said.

Perhaps sensing Albert's reluctance to actually ask the question in the presence of a hero of the Empire war, Helen said, "Rentar-Ihrno, you may have heard that we found the surface plagued by various monsters manufactured there recently. We found a crystal there used by the makers of the plagues. Our mages have confirmed the crystal was manufactured by the vahnati. We wanted to ask if you knew of vahnati who would wish to do this, or of strangers who may've obtained the crystals."

Albert wished that vahnati faces showed emotion the same way that human ones did. He honestly couldn't tell if the news or accusation surprised Rentar-Ihrno a whit. After an awkwardly long pause, Rentar-Ihrno told them, "I understand, and will help you as I can, but I do not have the answers you seek. Our soul crystals, if that is what you refer to, house magical copies of monsters - you may have seen our mages selling them here. Not only do they not do what you describe, but I assure you we only sell them to reputable persons such as yourselves. I have not learned of any thefts, either."

Frruh added, "If it would help you, this particular crystal was used to create a powerful magical barrier."

"Thank you," Rentar-Ihrno told him. "Again, I am not aware of thefts or irresponsible sale. It is possible another vahnati clan has awoken in our homeland that would be fully or partially responsible. It is also true that I am not our people's final authority. To assure you of our clan's intentions, I believe our Crystal Souls would like to grant you an audience."

"The Crystal Souls?" Albert blurted.

"The same captured by the Empire, yes," Rentar-Ihrno agreed. "Our most cherished ancestors' souls, preserved by our magics as crystals."

"I meant no disrespect," Albert said hastily, though the idea had always both been interesting and intensely creepy.

Rentar-Ihrno made an alien gesture that was probably acceptance and began to lead them, while Helen whispered, "Then maybe try keeping your mouth closed?"

"I'll try, I'll try," he muttered back.

"This is a strange honor," Sschass murmured to Helen, and she nodded back as they entered a heavily fortified and defended dome.

Rentar-Ihrno paused just after admitting them. "I shall wait here and let you speak to them alone. They speak in your minds, I believe is the way you would put it. Or perhaps your souls. I am unsure of the difference between the two."

"So are we," Helen half-joked.

Rentar-Ihrno either caught the humor or was at least not offended, and continued, "Do not anger them. But please also have pity on them, and excuse Jekknol-Bok especially," Rentar-Ihrno apologized. "The Empire tormented Jekknol-Bok. The years of peace have not yet been enough."

As they entered the room, they could see the Souls, blue crystals about three feet tall, set on stone pedestals. They pulsed with slight glows that reflected off the polished tile as they spoke to the adventurers in their minds. Startling as it was at first, it was actually easier to understand these creatures than live vahnati, without the burden of accent.

Still, Helen cast several glances at Albert as the conversation wore on. Friendliness was one of his good points, but he seemed to insist on talking about everything with the Crystal Souls - the Empire War, the Souls' experiences with the Empire, what the Souls remembered about Captain Tompkins and the other Avernites who rescued them, the potential of the surface - except for the one thing they had come to talk about. Finally, with clear reluctance, he asked the question.

Vyvnas-Bok replied, "There must be some sort of mistake, or perhaps unscrupulous persons stole our crystals after slaying their owners. Besides, our race is harmed by the sun - we are assisting you so you can have the surface."

Caffren-Bok asserted, "We are not interested in the surface ourselves, but we do not begrudge it to you. The plagues are not our doing."

Frruh commented to Caffren-Bok, "I must say, I admire your courage. You've moved from your homelands to a new place, one much closer to the Empire that so wronged you all."

"All must face their fears," Caffren-Bok replied. "And sadly, it is not as though time in safety has yet helped Jekknol-Bok. From here, we can guide our people and yours. If need be, we can help you face the Empire head-on, with our united strength - the cowards haven't before had to face the magic prepared Crystal Souls can unleash together."

Jekknol-Bok interjected, "Empire! Pain, suffering! No! No!"

Vyvnas-Bok and Caffren-Bok began to glow steadily, and Jekknol-Bok quickly added, "Know. Not here. I know. Safe now. You told me. Still seeing. Still - aah! Aah! No! Not now. Know in past. In past. Stop, cowards! No - you not them. Pain - pain - PAIN!"

Vyvnas-Bok said peacefully, "Jekknol-Bok, these are from our friends, Avernites."

"Avernum, help us against Empire, save us," Jekknol-Bok said, his glow diminishing. "Ten years ago. Helped us. Saved me. Saved us. Tompkins. Renault. Feinman. Iago. We saved them. Returned favor. Paid back Empire. Pain for pain. Pain for pain." His glow started to increase again.

Caffren-Bok told him, "Jekknol-Bok, safety is here. Remember the present. We are here, in Ghikra."

Rentar-Ihrno started towards the adventurers, and Albert and Sschass started towards her, motioning apologetically. Helen, frustration forgotten, cast a glance back at Jekknol-Bok - but even if his crystal could feel touch or hear her consolations, the wounds in his spirit were deeper than she could heal in the time they had. She followed Sschass and Albert out, and Frruh followed her, bowing to the Souls before he left.

* * *

As they camped that evening in the cavern just outside Ghikra, Helen commented, "Unsurprisingly, everyone has denied the allegations. Maybe someone's lying. Or maybe someone framed all of them. But where do we go from here?"

"At least two of the three suspects were framed," Frruh noted. "Framing or actually doing the deed are the only reasons to leave behind things like what we found in those factories."

Sschass countered, "But what if several groups are working together? I wouldn't be surprised if the dragons joined with the vahnati, for example. Erika - I think she considers her honor satisfied with the previous emperor's death, but she might help any or all of them just to show off."

Helen asked again, "What do we do with all this, though?"

Albert asked, "What can we do? We either get more evidence or somebody 'fesses up. And with no idea how to make either happen, I say we just stick to our real mission and keep exploring. Or maybe our job is monster extermination at this point."

Helen agreed, "Planted or not, we do find more evidence the more we tangle with the beasts."

* * *

Author's Note

It's been some time since I've actually played through Ghikra, and though in some ways I remember it well, in some ways I don't. None of this should be assumed to be canon, and Rentar-Ihrno and the Souls may be out of character. Also, a minor note: in the game, as I recall, you speak to the souls separately. It makes sense there, but in thinking about writing the scene, it also made sense to me to have a sort of group conversation, since everyone is in the same room.


	12. The Tower

Evermoon 19, 815 I. E.

1 Year before Albert's Exile

Tower of Magi, Avernum

Having ascended at last to the highest floor of the Tower of Magi, Nathan, Derek, Warren, and Ribaldi stepped quietly along the cavewood floor. Ahead was a stone wall, but they could still sense the wrongness that had lain over the entire campus.

Passing through the door, they found the menace which had provoked one of the students here to break his vow of silence. It was staring at them as they entered, aloofly amused and slavering with hunger. An enormous pentagram etched into the floor was apparently preventing it from roaming, for the moment. The creature stood head and shoulders taller than Derek, tallest of their number, and its curled horns nearly brushed against the ceiling. Its body was solidly muscled, and its fingers ended in long spikes.

Nathan and Derek stood abreast, before Ribaldi, while Warren tried to edge around the pentagram to get behind the thing. Their weapons had been at the ready since before entering the room. The Adze-Haakai turned his head to toss a toothy grin at Warren's attempt at encirclement, but as it turned back, it noticed and frowned down at Demonslayer, clutched in Nathan's sweating hand.

When Warren was in position, Nathan shouted, and they charged into the pentagram, and the Adze-Haakai brandished its claws with ferocious enjoyment.

* * *

After the Adze-Haakai was defeated, Warren gasped with relief as Ribaldi healed a nasty gash on his arm. "Nearly lost the whole thing, my son!" Ribaldi said with paternal concern.

"No kidding," Warren agreed, still looking a bit pale.

Nathan braced himself against a wall with his arm while Derek leaned his back on the same wall. Nathan said between pants, "And that's why we needed Demonslayer!"

"It helped, yeah," Warren agreed, then took a long swig from a water skin.

Derek grimaced. "It still smells like sulphur in here." He eyed the trails of soot along the wall from the flames that had been cast during the battle. "Mages are crazy. Both Linda calling that thing here, and the folks in charge here just hushing it up and locking it up here. I hope those idiot master mages do something about her now. What would've happened if Linda got to have it all her way, huh?"

* * *

16 Years after Albert's Exile

Tower of Magi, Avernum

Albert coughed on the smoke that was billowing through the halls of the Tower of Magi. He heard a deep voice telling him to use cloth to cover his nose and mouth. Sschass had bellowed to be heard over humans' screams of terror, and demons' screams of frenzied delight. The cloth helped, but it wasn't able to keep everything out.

Some apprentices who were still on this level, garments singed and torn, were running down a corridor toward them, and stopped in surprise.

Frruh gestured behind himself, shouting, "Get to the portal!" They nodded silently - they were still in that part of their apprenticeship requiring a vow of silence. One at least had recognized Frruh, and calmed slightly. The party had fought their way to this point after coming through the portal from Upper Avernum, so the route should be fairly clear.

Helen called, "Imps ahead!" then lashed out at them with a bolt of ice. The imps snarled, turning from toying with horrifyingly mutilated corpses (at least Helen hoped the poor souls had died before the imps began their cruelty), and began to fling fire in her direction. Albert and Sschass charged at them, Frruh sending lances of ice at the monsters.

Just before they slew the third imp, there was a great shaking in the tower. Just after the last fell, there was another shaking, spilling chalky dust from the floors above.

"No," Frruh said, so quietly that Albert was amazed he could hear it. He wasn't sure how he could so clearly see on a feline face the thoughts of the soul inside, but he could.

"I'm sorry," Albert said, clapping Frruh on the shoulder, "but if there's any hope of saving this place, it's on the higher levels."

They hurried.

* * *

They found Solberg, mighty wizard of the Triad, in an office. At first Frruh thought he was dead, but he had swooned while trying to bandage a bad wound on his leg. Frruh retied the bandage, trying not to jostle Solberg's burned body, while Helen tried to heal the mage.

Solberg recovered consciousness, and said in a quiet, urgent voice, "Frruh, you and friends go. Now. The Triad - what's left of us - Mahdavi's dead - we'll fight. I got some infernals already, but I was surprised and isolated - barely made it back here - but I'll manage it."

Frruh protested, "Sir, we've come to help. Please let us defend what we can!"

Helen frowned, taking Solberg's pulse. He flashed frustrated eyes at her, then at Frruh, as he insisted, "It's too late for the Tower. We have to save Avernum. Linda thought she could use her own soul to summon and take control of Grah-Hoth. Fool."

"But Grah-Hoth is-" Frruh protested, and Solberg interrupted, "Banished from our world, not dead."

"You're not asking us to kill Linda, are you?" Albert asked, horrified.

"No, you flee, the Triad will set this right!" Solberg insisted.

Helen pointed out, "Sir, you've fought well already. You've lost too much blood, though, and I can't heal you enough right now. Linda made her choice, and if we don't kill her, demons will continue to enter Avernum, streaming in from her. With such an easy means of access, it may even be worse than Grah-Hoth's time. And with the portal here, they can get to the surface."

Albert swallowed and said, "So we have to strike now, before too many enter our world."

* * *

They charged into the center of the top floor. A large number of tall, muscular demons stood protectively around a glassy-eyed woman in mage's robes, who was standing in front of a horrid head. The head was enormous, and ghostly, but getting more substantial by the moment.

The face on that head swung towards the party. "Huh," it said to them, voice booming off the stone floor and ceiling. "Again, adventurers are called in to stop the grand armies of Grah-Hoth. Humans have underestimated me all day." Directing its attention to the demons, Grah-Hoth ordered, "Take them alive. Savor torturing them, but I shall deal the deathblows when I am fully there."

The demons charged, and Albert and his companions rushed to meet them. The room filled with fierce howls, battle cries, clanging metal, roaring flames, crashing ice, and the laughter of Grah-Hoth. Linda stood still, staring vacantly, her mage's robes unmoving except for slight breathing.

As they began to break through the lines of demons, Helen looked at Linda. That mage's foolishness had caused all this. Caused all the deaths, and a demonic invasion. But someone at least needed to try looking for the lost sheep. She looked at Grah-Hoth and demanded, "Let her go!"

He laughed, while Helen had to mind her shield and immediate foes, then explained, "Linda invited me! I can't help it if her motives were insincere. She wanted to use me and my army. Isn't she getting her wish? She wanted to possess me. Isn't that evil, little acolyte? I'm possessing her instead. It's justice."

The last of the demons fully in the room fell. Grah-Hoth grumbled at their corpses, "Pathetic." Helen healed her friends, but she was nearly exhausted. The others were clearly at their limits as well.

Albert motioned to Helen, who took out the Blessed Athame, the dagger that Solberg had told them to retrieve from storage in the tower.

Grah-Hoth laughed louder than before. "I love it! I love it! The brave knights must murder a defenseless woman with a holy dagger in order to stop the demon!"

Helen said urgently, "Linda, there is still time for repentance."

"Maybe," laughed Grah-Hoth, "but her contract with me can't be undone by you mortals. Adventurers shall not best me."

Linda hadn't moved her feet or her eyes. All around her were the symbols she had intricately drawn on the floor to summon Grah-Hoth. Sschass hissed and alerted his companions - behind Grah-Hoth were smaller shapes, but they were walking towards them, and growing rapidly more substantial. Albert and the others stood at the ready.

Helen set her face like flint. "Linda, the first judgment is that you deserve to die. May God have mercy on you in the second."

She plunged the Blessed Athame into Linda.

When Linda's body fell to the floor, the horrid, solidifying visage of Grah-Hoth hovering in midair snarled, "This is not victory! Avernum will be mine again one day!" But his face faded until it was finally gone.

There was a great groaning from the tower supports, and dust from the ceiling fell on their heads and circled in the Avernites' nostrils.

Frruh coughed and said in a hoarse voice, "Tell me we can save something here."

Albert sneezed, looked down at Linda, and said, "We saved Avernum, at least. But it isn't safe to stay. Let's get back to Upper Avernum." Sschass gestured, and Albert added, "We'll grab Solberg and anyone we can."

"Let's hurry," Helen said.

Frruh looked at Linda and hurried out, shaking his head all the way.

* * *

Portal Fortress, Some Hours Later

Helen had been drained some time earlier, but at least she still could set a splint on a wounded apprentice's arm. The apprentice was one among the dozens of people sitting on the street, in various degrees of shock, receiving various amounts of emergency care. Helen's patient was trying not to cry from the pain, but the splint had to cover a bad burn on his arm, and everyone in the fort was out of even basic poultices. Albert walked up as she finished praying with the patient and stood. He gave a sympathetic glance down at the man, but the patient was focused on enduring the pain, and hadn't quite realized anyone else was there.

"How're you holding up?" Albert asked Helen quietly.

"Better than Bigail," she told him, with a brief rueful smile. "And doing it this way means I can help more people."

"You're a treasure," he said fondly, "but I'm still going to keep checking up on you."

"And you call me a mother hen." Her voice grumped, but there was a small, tired, grudging, smile on her face.

"Someone's got to mother the mother hen," Albert pointed out.

Helen shook her head and chuckled.

Frruh approached with a confused expression.

"It's just a joke, Frruh," Helen explained. Albert turned to face him and said, "Neither of you have seen a mother hen, have you?"

Frruh noted in a rough voice, "There were plenty near the farmhouses around Sharimik." He coughed harshly several times.

"You really should have that looked at-" Helen began, but Frruh quickly held up a hand. "Others breathed more smoke than me, I shall wait," he insisted.

Albert inquired, "What are the plans?"

Frruh said quietly, in a husky voice, "For now? Rest. Recover. Mourn." He was still a moment, then continued, "The survivors will stay in the fort; tomorrow we'll see wherever else we can find room for them in Upper Avernum. At some point they'll see whether the Tower can be made structurally safe again."

"We can talk to the commander, ask him for a few days to spend here." Albert suggested. "You can help -" he corrected, "we can help here."

Frruh shook his head. "What Helen and the others are doing is what is most needed, and is nearly done. The need is unexpected, but the personnel here can handle the logistics and lodging given time. I still have a mission."

Albert shook Frruh's hand, and before releasing it, said, "But tonight, at least, we rest here."

Frruh nodded. They shuffled off to their quarters. Some old acquaintances of Frruh's from the Tower had been waiting outside, and so they were reunited. Albert and Helen soon excused themselves and stepped into the room, where they found Sschass regarding the bandages on his leg. In response to Helen's query, he told her that the wounds were healing well.

He then said more quietly, "Have you heard? It's not surprising, but the portal back to Avernum has been shut down."

Albert, careful to keep his voice low, agreed, "The Tower could collapse at any moment. You could die as soon as you set foot outside the portal."

Sschass nodded and added, "Someone needs to find a way to secure that area soon, though. Until then, Upper Avernum is entirely cut off. No retreat, and no lines of supply or communication. We could be forced onto the surface sooner than we ever expected, just to try to gather some food."

"Our mission is more important than ever," Helen agreed grimly.

* * *

Author's Note: I think the Adze-Haakai was on the highest floor of the tower.

Solberg and Grah-Hoth may be slightly out of character here - for various reasons, I usually don't actually experience this side story! That is also why the course of the fight and what happens to Linda may be incorrect. She at least is struck down - she may survive, catatonic, or she may die, I'm not sure. Also, I assume the portal is shut down, for all but the most urgent travel, but I may be wrong.

I don't recall where the chickens are in the game, but I figured there were probably some around Sharimik, if there are any at all.


	13. Proven

833 I. E.

16 Years after Albert's Exile

Golem Factory, Gale, Surface

Albert's labored breathing finally returned to normal as Helen recovered enough to heal him fully. That had been a bad one to the leg, he mused to himself.

They looked around the ruins of another monster factory; this one had made golems. Frruh and Sschass were both wincing from remaining injuries, but still gathering smashed fragments of the Mind Crystal which had controlled the place.

"I hope," Sschass said seriously, "that whoever makes these monsters won't be able to make another factory for golems. So hardy, and with such raw power!"

"Not without significant effort," Frruh said with assurance. "This facility was very extensive and intricate, and we smashed a great deal of it. Odd, though - I know this continent is unsettled, but it's amazing that such a structure could be built without being noticed."

Albert's mouth quirked, "Maybe it was noticed, but nobody could get close enough, if they had a few golems they made already to guard the construction. I never like to admit it, but bravery alone isn't always enough."

They began to trudge towards the door. Helen asked carefully, "Who will we bring the news to first? General Baziron will be glad to hear of this, but there are others we could inform."

Albert could tell she was monitoring his reaction. He hadn't exactly had a poker face when he heard that the local hero battling the golems was an Empire Dervish. He hadn't been thrilled about meeting the general. But Albert had, and he was glad he did.

Albert responded, slightly too casually, "Maybe tell the drake who helped us first, if he's closer; I'm too tired to remember. But yeah, definitely General Baziron, and soon. He lost enough men to these things, and he did help; he deserves to know."

They all heaved their tired bodies out of the room. Sschass, leaning on his spear, commented, "I wonder when it got so normal for us to talk to high-ranking officers in the Empire army."

"When did it get so normal for them to talk to us?" Helen laughed tiredly.

"Exactly," Frruh said. "I never expected it, but it's happening."

Albert shrugged. "The ones who get it, get it. They're at least trying to help. I still remember what it was like, hearing that the Empire hired eyebeasts to attack Cotra. I couldn't imagine how they could live with themselves, but more of what held my thoughts was wondering when the monsters were going to invade my home. Now it's the Empire's turn. Maybe it's justice. But at least some of the Empire is trying to use its power to actually help its people." He laughed bitterly. "Wish they'd done that for Carl and me."

Sschass asked, "You've mentioned your brother died in the war. What happened?"

Albert started ahead again, and they followed, and he said after a few paces and blowing air rapidly out of his lips, "Well, he went down fighting, at least there was that. A dervish got him. No one was ever sure which one, not enough light for that. Or survivors. Just enough to get the word to us." He shook his head. "That's what I mean about bravery not being enough. I always knew Carl would be brave, I always knew the army would be brave. But if just one thing had gone wrong, if Avernum weren't so far from the Empire, if Captain Tompkins and his men hadn't convinced the vahnati to help us - we would've lost the war. There were just too many in the Empire, and too few in Avernum. And now the Empire's finding that out. In these unsettled lands, there's too many monsters being made, and too few in the Empire willing to stand against them. Thought I'd enjoy it more, but I want to help these people. Just wish it wasn't the Empire I was helping."

"We're just helping people, just regular folks," Helen said reassuringly. But she wondered as she said it if that were the whole story. They had just helped a general. What fine line might they have already crossed into simply helping the Empire? They were here to help Avernum. Further, how long would the Empire accept them before sending them back into the pit?

Helen glanced at Albert, who swallowed and said softly, "I hate the part of me that says the Empire deserves worse."

Helen wanted to tell him that he was awful, that there were so many sick and dying and grieving that needed help, but she couldn't. She said instead, haltingly at first, "A few months ago, one of you asked me if I ever had doubts. Most of them trace back to when I was a scared little girl in Avernum, learning that the Empire had hired monsters to kill my aunt and uncle and three cousins in Cotra. I couldn't understand why God didn't judge the Empire right away. Maybe that's what's happening now, but I still hate the part of me that revels in their humiliation."

The others had similar thoughts as they walked outside, to where they had concealed their horses. Calming their animals, they got on and started heading back to Upper Avernum.

Sschass, already having a suspicion, asked, "What do you think the Bunker will say about these fragments from the Mind Crystal?"

Albert released the reigns a moment to throw up his hands in an elaborate shrug. "Probably just another guess at who may be behind the plagues. Nothing different from the other monster factories."

Sschass was uneasy, but kept silent, since he didn't want to speak without proof.

* * *

Approximately Two Weeks Later, in 833 I. E.

Secret Avernite Research Facility: "The Bunker", Upper Avernum

Berra, research mage of the Bunker, looked up as he heard the sound of the secret passage opening, and the sound of booted feet entering. It wasn't time for a meal or shift change, so it was almost certainly the surface exploration team come to ask what he'd learned from the latest evidence. He took a deep breath.

They knew the way to his office by now - they should, after delivering four pieces of evidence to it! The door opened behind him with its usual creak, and he turned to face them. They all looked relaxed, peaceful. He hated to ruin the atmosphere. They all greeted each other pleasantly.

Frruh asked, "Berra, may we inquire what you learned from the Mind Crystal fragments?"

Berra took another deep breath. "Something grave. The vahnati are the ones responsible. They unleashed all the horrors on the surface."

Sschass hissed, lowering his head, Helen covered her mouth, and Frruh coughed in surprise.

Albert blinked, but was otherwise frozen. Then he said unsteadily, "How sure are you?"

Berra's smile was sad and sympathetic as he replied, "Certain. There's simply no denying it. The Mind Crystal fragments alone would be, but together with the crystal generating the barrier between the troglodytes and giants, well. They're clearly magical crystals far beyond what Avernum can do, and with skill and precision and style that match the vahnati exactly."

Albert stared at him. He had to be wrong. But Berra was one of Avernum's most trusted mages - that was why he was in this secret facility, and he and his colleagues were tasked with this important work. And both the crystals looked like vahnati work - he and his most trusted friends had thought so when first seeing them. And, Albert thought bitterly to himself, though he had been too blind to see it, while both Erika and the dragons had responded to the accusations with a solid way to help, the vahnati had responded only with words.

* * *

Same Day

Office of Commander Anaximander, In Charge of the Surface Exploration

Fort Emergence, Upper Avernum

Anaximander leapt to his feet. "The vahnati after all!" he exclaimed. "And how certain is this?"

Albert said slowly, "Sir, Berra was completely certain. I still don't want to believe it of my friends. But even I have to admit that when I first laid eyes on that crystal, that it looked like it had been made by the vahnati."

"And, sir, there was the less complex crystal we recovered from the cavern with the giants and troglodytes," Sschass reminded him. "Berra and the other mages confirmed that one was also made by vahnati."

Anaximander paced a few steps, back and forth, then ordered, "Return to Ghikra. We know that a rival vahnati clan helped the Empire steal the Crystal Souls a decade ago - maybe someone's trying to make trouble again."

* * *

Same Day

Upper Avernum

On the way to reach Ghikra, the vahnati patrol they had seen a few months ago had come close, exchanged whispers, then suddenly attacked. After the Avernites won the battle, Frruh said darkly, "There's our answer, then."

When they reached Ghikra, they found it completely empty. The children were gone. The merchants were absent, goods nowhere to be seen. The doors of the houses were locked. The compound that had housed the Crystal Souls was open, but the pedestals that had held the Crystal Souls held nothing now.

"Why?" Albert asked. But there wasn't even wind to answer him in the caves.

* * *

Author's Note

In Exile/Avernum, an Empire Dervish is an elite soldier, capable of incredible maneuverability and speed, even in full plate armor. General Baziron, leader of Empire forces in Gale province against the golems, is a dervish.

Berra may be out of character, as I don't quite remember how Berra expresses his certainty that the vahnati are the culprits.

I also don't quite remember if you can travel between the Bunker and Fort Emergence and Ghikra in the same day, especially since you don't bring the horses into Upper Avernum, but as I recall, Upper Avernum is not supposed to be enormous, so it seemed possible. If I'm wrong, it should read "Same Week" instead of "Same Day."


	14. Emperors

Leafloss 35, 817 I. E.

2 Months After Albert's Exile

The Royal Spire

Nathan bashed Emperor Hawthorne straight in the nose with his shield - or he meant to, but the emperor had ducked to the side and was swinging his own sword at Nathan's throat. Nathan lashed up, then down, Demonslayer's blade striking inside the elbow on the emperor's sword arm, but it glanced off Hawthorne's fine mail. Nathan then aimed the sword's point at the emperor's throat, and scored, but an iron collar stopped the blow. Hawthorne reeled back, gagging, clutching his throat with his left gauntlet, and that was when Warren sprang up, from the side, stabbing at the armpit of the emperor's raised left arm. The scream and other results suggested the would was mortal, but Nathan struck a final blow to the emperor's head that was certain.

Derek kicked the last dervish of the emperor's guard, who reeled into the zone Ribaldi had aimed his fireball at. This neatly incinerated both the dervish and the last wizard of the Empire left in the room. Still, they could hear shouts and jangling mail coming closer.

There was a crackling sound, and they saw a door-like opening in space forming near a wall. The opening was wreathed with crackling blue energy, and inside it was darkness. They recognized it from the portal they had used to get here, and ran through it, finding themselves back in Avernum, in Erika's tower, as expected.

"We've done it," Nathan panted in Erika's general direction, as he struggled to stay upright. He quaffed a potion, not caring about propriety, and breathed a quick thanks to Ribaldi as the man began to heal him.

Coldly, Erika replied, "I am aware, that is why you are back." With a visible and conscious effort to moderate her tone, she added, "You have performed your mission extremely well, and the reward promised is yours in full."

* * *

As they left Erika's tower behind, Warren looked at the necklace he was holding and sighed heavily.

Nathan asked, "Where did you get that one?" before remembering that was exactly the question he never wanted to ask Warren.

"It was one of Hawthorne's," Warren said. "He was wearing it outside of his armor. I snatched it just before we teleported back."

"Put it on," Derek suggested. "All hail Emperor Warren!" he said loudly, the sound reverberating off the cave walls.

Warren chuckled and told him to shut up. A bit later, he groaned, "I must be an idiot."

"In which particular way?" Derek asked playfully.

Warren held up the necklace's pendant and said, "Something this valuable may never pass through my hands again. But I'd trade it in a heartbeat to go to the surface. How dumb am I? And we were so close, we were actually on the surface, too." Warren lamented. "I still remember what grass smells like, and now I'm back here."

Derek pointed out, "We should've asked Erika to make that Warren's reward. Open a portal for him to somewhere halfway decent on the surface."

Ribaldi cautioned, "I doubt she'd like to consider herself a ferry to mere mortals like us. She probably only teleported us back because she knew we wouldn't go on this mad mission without an escape route. I hate to say this, Warren, when you're actually thinking about something other than jewels, but that's the truth. Besides, it would also hurt her pride to see us live in the one place she can't get to with all her power."

In Nathan's opinion, she had wanted the emperor dead rather badly, and there were few besides them with the skills or desire to do the deed, so they probably could've negotiated. However, as he actually said aloud, "No point thinking about it now. We'll just have to find that escape route, then."

* * *

Empire 34, 833 I. E.

16 Years after Albert's Exile

Blackcrag Fortress, Footracer Province, Surface

Empress Prazac looked down at Albert, Sschass, Helen, and Frruh from her throne. She said aloud, "Greetings, Avernites. I trust you are aware of what happened to the last Emperor who encountered Avernites, appreciate the risk I take, and will not waste my time with trifles. I am glad to see that you have survived your first brush with court politics."

Frruh grimaced - they had tried to wipe off their weapons and armor after they were ambushed by soldiers who didn't want Avernites around, but he felt sure that even a human nose would still detect the stink.

Albert swallowed. Before this mission, he would've been obsessed with wondering whether the dervish who killed his brother Carl in the war was was among those who tried to ambush them, or was standing with the Empress on the platform now. After all this time, swallowing back frustration and working with Empire citizens, soldiers, and generals, and even dervishes like General Baziron, he couldn't feel the same way. So he replied, "We are, too, Your Majesty. We understand your position. But we're all here because we understand that the monsters are a threat to everyone."

"You understand correctly," Empress Prazac agreed. "The war with Avernum is over. A war for all life on the surface has begun. I am here because I intend to win this war. You are here because you have repeatedly proven that you can end the plagues of monsters. But we both know that ending the monsters will not win the war. Those responsible for sending the monsters must be ended."

She raised a tube from her side, opened it and tipped out a sealed scroll. After confirming from their expressions that the Avernites had seen it, she closed the tube again, then held it towards them. Sschass walked slowly up the steps of the dais to take it from her. The Empress and her guards were still with readiness, but not blind hostility. When Sschass had returned to the others, the Empress said, "That is my personal correspondence to your king. To encourage you to safely deliver it, and because it contains my public pledge if he accepts it, I shall reveal its contents to you. Defeat whoever is sending these plagues to us, and Avernum shall be granted unsettled lands in Krizsan province, to be governed solely by your king and your laws."

The Avernites were stunned speechless.

"You had best be on your way," the Empress said. "You have a long road back home."

* * *

Author's Note

See the previous chapter's note for more information on an Empire Dervish.

I don't recall everything about the fight with Emperor Hawthorne and what happens afterward, but I'm fairly sure Erika rewards you.

Empress Prazac may be slightly out of character, and as with most characters in the game, I don't guarantee her dialogue in this chapter matches canon.


	15. Struggles

Leafloss 1, 833 I. E.

16 Years after Albert's Exile

Northern Valorim

They didn't have much to say besides adventuring small talk for the first two days. ("The weather is good." "I'm sure we've gone four miles, we should've been at the next town by now. Check the map again." "Should we pass those wandering monsters or try to intercept them?")

On the third evening, while the campfire crackled, Helen finally said, "I'm just glad she didn't ask us who is responsible."

Sschass looked around, and Helen glanced at him, then said aloud, "Would the Empress really bother sending spies after us? They're busy enough quarantining Footracer Province."

Sschass allowed, "True. And not talking about it is smothering my mind."

Helen protested, "What's there to talk about? The king will decide whether this is a good idea or not."

Albert put in, "Sure, deliver the scroll. But why do we have to help the Empire? We are in the Avernite Adventuring Corps. We have the right to refuse missions. Deliver scrolls, scout the surface, sure, but actually help the Empire kill vahnati? We don't have to accept a mission to do that."

Frruh purred, "I like the way you're thinking, Albert, but don't stop there. We've got most of the continent to travel before we can return to Upper Avernum. Perhaps the Empress' scroll will have an unfortunate accident."

Helen said firmly, "I don't like the Empire, but I like being underhanded less."

Sschass tapped the scroll tube and said thoughtfully, "You mean, if it accidentally fell in the fire while we were reading it one night?"

Frruh regarded the tube. "It probably has some level of spells on it to detect that and alert an Empire mage. Even if they believed it was an accident, they might simply give us another scroll, or find a way to teleport it directly to Avernum. It'd be harder to detect if we accidentally lost it over the edge of a dangerous mountain pass."

Helen shot Albert a look, one meant to indicate, "Are you going to let this continue?" However, he didn't catch it.

Instead, Albert said, "Sneaky isn't my style, and the king is the king; this is his jog. I don't mind saying I'd like to personally throw it back at the Empress. But it still bothers me. The vahnati were sneaky. Really sneaky. And not even just to the Empire. To us, too. I can't believe they lied to our faces," Albert said, pacing in agitation. "Why would they do that?"

Sschass suggested, "The best reason I can think of is that they didn't want to burden us with the knowledge. It was their vengeance, they didn't need our approval, and they didn't want us involved in the affair. At the end of the last war, the Empire retreated out of the caves; they never surrendered or even asked for a truce. By my people's standards, the last war is not over; perhaps the same is true for the vahnati. Not that we haven't all acted as though the war is over."

Frruh noted, "The same is true by my people's standards of war. To be honest, I thought that even your human standards labeled that a lull in hostilities, not an end to them. But on another point. Back in Ghikra, I didn't want to press the issue, but I was suspicious of why the Crystal Souls would want to leave their homes and move closer to the Empire that kidnapped them. Their explanation was rational, but something still felt wrong about it. Now it's clear - they wanted, perhaps needed, to be close to the plagues they're sending. To steer them, or think up new ones. And most of all, to relish the Empire's suffering."

"That's sick," Albert muttered.

Frruh shrugged. "You're the one who felt sorry for the wrongs the Souls suffered at the hands of the Empire."

Albert shook his head, saying, "I know but, but - I don't know!" He flung himself back to the ground in a sitting position. He looked Helen in the eye. "What do you really think?"

"Really think?" she said, annoyed.

Albert persisted, "Not what you think you ought to think. What you really think."

Helen deeply desired to tell him she never behaved like that, but deep down she knew it would be a lie, and besides, she wanted to talk about this matter as much as everyone else, however much or little authority they had. "I don't want to do this, Albert. But I suspect we must. The vahnati are our friends, but - what they're doing is sick, like you said! Literally! And making others sick! Making so many people suffer like that! And like you said, lying to us about it. I can't trust them now. Back in the war, they thought we kidnapped the Crystal Souls, so they attacked us at first - I understand an honest mistake. This isn't a mistake.

She groaned. "But it's not as though the Empire hasn't done the same, or worse. And I don't trust the Empire, either. Except I really want that land the Empress offered. Not that we know it's any good, or they'll keep their word. And I'd feel like we'd be selling out the vahnati, even though they deserve it. I don't know!"

Sschass said aloud, "When I think about reasons not to do it, there are several. Albert, everyone I've ever talked to has said that the Empire rules all the surface. Can we really count on the empress giving up that point of pride to the sons of criminals?"

Albert shrugged, "I see the point. But the Empire could still practically say it. It's not that much land that they're giving us. I hadn't thought of it that way, though."

"I can see either possibility as being true," Sschass agreed. "My main concern lies elsewhere. If we side with the Empire, I fear the vahnati's vengeance on Avernum."

"On us?" Albert said, surprised, and Helen protested, "But why would they attack us?"

Sschass reminded them, "We would be betraying our alliance with them, and siding with their great enemy. It's one thing to fight their monsters while ignorant of their source. But sooner or later, we'll have to confront the vahnati, and, I fear, force them to stop making these plagues, or new ones. They will hate us for that. There is far less distance between us and them than between them and the surface.

"Also, the vahnati's methods are honed now. Have you noticed that the plagues have gotten more sophisticated? They went from slimes to roaches, from roaches to giants and troglodytes, then to golems, and now to the alien beasts. Perhaps they didn't make them in that order, but they're now able to make factories producing some of the deadliest monsters ever."

Helen put in, "They could rule the world with them."

"Possibly," Sschass agreed. "And, the vahnati are learning right now from how we destroyed them, to produce new defenses, and wield their beasts in new ways. Can you imagine golems charging through Cotra? Alien beasts roaming the fields near Formello? A combined vahnati-monster assault on the Castle? We may face all of that if we defy the vahnati. The vahnati aren't unstoppable, but I'm not sure Avernum could survive that war."

Helen noted, "I fear the vahnati reprisals, too. It's really my main reason for not opposing them. But we have to do what we think is right."

"At what cost?" Sschass argued.

"It's all our families on the line," Helen reminded him. "I do see your meaning, I can't risk all Avernum to satisfy my moral urges. And I don't want to undo all the hard work that Bon-Ihrno and Captain Tompkins and his squad put into rescuing the Crystal Souls and forging the alliance. But I can't stand before God or that hospital in Bigail and say that the vahnati are in the right with what they're doing now.

"Besides, as long as we're speculating, I can paint another scenario. If we decline the empress' offer, then she probably will figure out sooner or later who made the monsters. She has no options left but to attack the vahnati directly. She'll establish new portals and invade the caverns again. I'd like to think that the Empire would only attack the vahnati, but realistically, they'll probably try to conquer us, too. I could be wrong. But we're more likely facing a choice of which foe to fight in the next war, not a choice between war and peace."

They all sat back a moment and considered the matter.

Frruh finally spoke and said, "Then why should we choose the foe which has done wrong to all of us? The vahnati have only barely affected us. The Empire has banished my people and yours from the stars, the sun, the wind, the sea. That was when they weren't hunting us like animals. The vahnati are using extreme tactics. So did the Empire when they hired eyebeasts to raze Cotra. I'm not sure that, to the average Empire footsoldier, a vahnati is so different from any one of a number of magical monsters in this world. Both are non-human, and both want to kill him. I can condemn the vahnati's creations and use of beasts. But I summon wild and magical animals to strike my foes. Because this is a cruel world, and we must use every weapon, or we get eaten."

Sschass let out a long breath, hissing as it wended through his teeth. He eventually said, "Frruh, I can't agree with all of that. Yet the Empire is my foe, too. And I've plainly seen that there are plenty in the Empire who would treat my people as they have yours. It's one of many reasons to think that peace with the Empire wouldn't last. Who should we side with?"

There was a slight breeze, and the cry of an owl. Albert stood and gesticulated, saying in a strained voice, "I don't know. I've got to get some air. Got to think."

Helen watched him go with concern, but it was clear within a few minutes that he was wandering within bowshot, head in his hands, or occasionally disordering his hair.

Frruh listened carefully to be sure that Albert was out of human hearing range. An opportune silence had gathered around the campfire, so he told those remaining, "There is still one way left to keep peace with all involved."

He had Helen and Sschass' full attention, and he felt guilty for the hopes he realized he was going to have to betray. "We could give up on the surface."

Their faces fell, worse than he had expected. Finally, Helen offered in response, "Albert could never do that."

"I agree, that would be his answer," Frruh told her. "That is why I am asking you."

A log popped on the fire, and Helen busied herself with rearranging some of the other logs, then with adding some wood, then with watching the sparks fly into the night sky, up to the stars above. Finally she said, "I love Avernum still. But its symbol is the sun. Most of the people never wanted to be there. The problem was always the Empire. Now we've been blessed with the chance to make a land with Avernum's freedoms, but on the surface. Besides, after this, I can't trust the vahnati. They elaborately framed Erika and the dragons, and lied to our faces. They hid this plan because they feared our disapproval. I also can't endorse what they're doing. And I couldn't live with myself if I were so conniving as to disapprove of what the vahnati did, but stood by and let them do it, then took the surface after everyone here was dead. How would I be any different from those bandits in Krizsan province, using the monsters to get my own way? How are the vahnati any different from them? The vahnati's vengeance is wrong."

A bit later, Albert flung himself back onto his seat in the midst of announcing, "I can't ignore this coincidence that I doubt is coincidence. The Empire can afford and is willing to give us what we've always wanted. That was always the unspoken problem behind this whole enterprise - what desperate deed or war would we have to fight to take some of the surface from the Empire? And here they're giving it away! Not for free, but, it's a price we can afford to pay. This opportunity may never come again." He groaned, looked into the campfire, then finally allowed, "Much as I love the vahnati, I can't ignore what they're doing. Whole villages that never lifted a finger against the crystal souls are dying. The vahnati knew how much the surface meant to us, and they're destroying the land and its people and its plants and animals. If they thought they were helping us, they could've asked. They helped us with every other part of reaching the surface, so not mentioning this part of their plans is simply sinister." He sighed and said, "I could easily see: maybe two years from now, maybe two hundred, the Empire will march into the portion of the surface they gave us and want it back. But there's no way around that. At least this way there's a chance for some time of peace."

Sschass had been tracing the wood grain on his spear shaft as he listened. Now he spoke, "Albert, Helen, I agree. I've fought with cunning and stealth. All do at some point or another. The plagues are far beyond that. The Empire has been wrong. But the vahnati are now the wrongdoers. Perhaps the Empire does deserve punishment, but are the vahnati the ones to do it? And the way in which they are doing it! They think their magics makes them gods, creating life and causing plagues. They are not. They are evil. And if we do not stop them now, I shudder to think what will occur. We set out to win the surface for Avernum. We can't back down because the vahnati are torching one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. I think they will try torching our home next, either for this, or for some future, imagined slight on their honor. We must battle them as often as we must to make sure that doesn't happen. I hope we'll be friends again with them someday, but it's not today."

Frruh hunched his shoulders, then lolled his head back to look at the sky, then paced around, but finally he sat back down. "'Yowls about past evils tell us nothing about the present good.' It's a saying of my people. The Empire struck us all; this was wrong. This is not in dispute. The dispute is what we should do now that is right. And the group is correct. Even were the vahnati justified in waging a war, this is not a war they are waging. There is also a madness in their actions. You said earlier they were getting more sophisticated, Sschass. This is true. You said the vahnati could rule the world with their plagues, Helen. So long as they have control over their creations, this is also true. But this is not how magic is to be used.

"These monsters are not summons. They don't return to their homes or to a soul crystal when no longer needed. They continue to exist here, never to leave. They continue with their insatiable hunger and mad lives, put together by abominable magic, most of them. The giants and troglodytes were evidently ripped from their own time, by what spells with what disastrous side effects I can only imagine. To take such risks with magic! We already know that the vahnati's control over their pawns is not absolute: slimes trying to infest other creatures, the friendly roaches, the giants and troglodytes happily battling each other! Any one of those cases prove it! If once any of the alien beasts managed to slip away from the vahnati's eyes and set up their own den, they could plague entire continents. The vahnati may have made them to reproduce far more than natural monsters can, and we know they were made to hunt all life. Magic used so, it is- it is disgusting. It is criminally negligent. It must be stopped."

* * *

Some Days Later

Fort Emergence, Upper Avernum

They delivered the scroll safely to Commander Anaximander, who realized it was so important that a messenger must risk going through Upper Avernum's portal, even though it would deposit the messenger in the ruins of the Tower of Magi. The king had to be told.

The messenger safely made his way out of the ruins and to the Castle, and then back to the portal and Fort Emergence. He had another scroll, containing King Micah's reply, which Albert, Helen, Frruh, and Sschass were to give to the Empress.

One alliance was made, and another broken.

* * *

Months After Albert's Exile

Grah-Hoth's Fortress

They were so close.

Nathan and his men almost had won. But now they were all about to die.

Grah-Hoth was bleeding from a bad wound on his left arm, was clearly tired, and they'd finally taken down his guards. But it was at a terrible cost. Nathan's men were exhausted and badly hurt. Warren had run out of throwing knives, and everyone was out of potions, scrolls, and wands. They'd also been separated - Derek was somewhere behind Grah-Hoth, while Nathan and the others were in front of the demon prince.

Enormous ram's horns bedecked Grah-Hoth's head, which spit at the adventurers from twenty feet above the stone floor. Nathan and Warren hurriedly shuffled so they would be between the demon prince and Father Ribaldi. The priest was trying to calm his trembling after using the last of his strength to heal Derek's forearm.

A spearpoint suddenly burst through Grah-Hoth's chest from behind, and he roared in pain. Nathan charged forward, trying to keep his elation in check, because that point had emerged too low, too low -

Indeed, it had caused great damage, but not enough to stop the monster from turning and impaling Derek at the navel, talons piercing his armor with a shriek like a striking kestrel. Nathan hoped with everything he had that Derek would stop screaming in that horrible, horrible way soon - and then, as he saw Derek crumple to the floor on the other side of Grah-Hoth's legs, Nathan hoped that Derek would make some noise, any noise at all.

A rumbling chuckle came from Grah-Hoth's lips.

Grah-Hoth turned then to face the remaining adventurers, but couldn't move as swiftly as before, so he presented his side to Nathan instead of facing him fully. Grah-Hoth raised an arm to try to catch Nathan in the ribs, but Demonslayer bit into his arm instead. As every time before that it had struck the monster, blinding light from the sword and injury made Grah-Hoth roar in amplified pain. However, the momentum of the arm still flung Nathan back, and this time, Demonslayer flew from Nathan's hand, clattering on the stones.

Nathan tried to get up, but his right arm seemed to be on fire, and his ribs and back not much better. Licking his lips, Grah-Hoth raised a hand to swat him.

There was only time for a short bark of pain as Nathan forced himself to roll out of the way. Then the stone knife Tor had given him came out of its sheath, but not to cut ropes or to skin meat. This time, it slaked its thirst in the demon, its tiny blade finding a minuscule crack in the scales near the talons as the hideous hand hit the floor.

Bellowing, Grah-Hoth retracted his hand in haste, about to smite Nathan horribly - but another stone knife struck his eye.

Warren chuckled, "We finally found a use for 'em, eh?"

Grah-Hoth fell to his knees, clutching the right side of his face, raking it with his talons as he howled.

Ribaldi probably thought he was helping Nathan to his feet, but Nathan felt more like Ribaldi was hoisting a sack of potatoes. Then, Ribaldi hurriedly pressed Demonslayer into his hand - or from Nathan's point of view, Demonslayer's hilt was slapped onto his palm, barely being caught by his fingers as he realized what was happening. But there was no time to complain, especially when Ribaldi followed it up by running and whacking at Grah-Hoth's curled elbow with his mace. There was an astonishing crunch, the arm fell limp, and Grah-Hoth roared yet again. He struck out at Ribaldi, but impaled, half-blind, and using a non-dominant and injured arm, he only knocked the priest off his feet. Nathan charged, but Warren outstripped him. Warren, slipping under Grah-Hoth's wildly waving hand, caught the demon behind the thigh. Grah-Hoth collapsed onto his side, clutching his newest injury.

Nathan braked only briefly as Grah-Hoth fell, then reoriented and charged straight for where he lay. He held Demonslayer high as he ran, then let it bite through the tyrant's neck. It flowed smoothly through, white fire following, and Grah-Hoth gave one final howl of rage before the blinding light enveloped him, and he disappeared.

The adventurers, blinking, stumbled over to where Derek was breathing shallowly, bleeding out. They stared a moment. Ribaldi tried to heal him, but crumpled to his hands and knees instead, then trembling, raised his hands to the ceiling. Derek was still bleeding.

Finally, Warren pulled out a potion from his boot and wordlessly handed it to Ribaldi, who boggled at him until he realized that it wasn't a healing potion to be given directly to Derek - it was a restorative potion. It was useless to someone like Warren, who knew no magic, but for Ribaldi -he forced his shaking hands to slow down as he unstoppered the vial, drank it, and began to heal Derek.

Warren explained to Nathan's raised eyebrows, "I thought I might need some cash someday. Never could find a chance to sell it, though. Always knew you'd make me give it to Ribaldi if you knew I had it."

Nathan grunted, not bothering to keep from smiling.

A short time later, Derek coughed from where he lay on the floor and groaned, "I could use a drink." He tried to roll over to begin sitting up.

Ribaldi held him down with a forceful finger on his forehead and vociferated, "Derek, I just regenerated your liver, and I will not have you abusing it so soon!"

Derek complained, "You enjoy the mushroom merlot with me, father."

Ribaldi countered, "Not to excess, my son. And I specifically recall that you do not enjoy the merlot, you merely drink it." He and Derek had finished the sentence together.

A short time later, Nathan pulled Ribaldi aside and asked quietly, "How soon can he travel?"

Warren had joined them and asked, "Nathan, can you travel anytime soon? Can any of us?" He gestured at the bandages festooning all of them, applied with varying degrees of skill and patience.

"The healing is done, but have patience, my son," Ribaldi said, taking off his pack and sitting down to rummage through it. "Derek, and all of us, need food."

* * *

After they had eaten, the group finally started to relax - as much as one could in an ancient palace of evil. Still, no further beings had appeared to attack them.

Derek finished a bite, chuckled awkwardly and joked nervously, "Father, you saved my life. I'll have to start treating you like a real priest now." Despite his unease, his smile was genuine, and he said "Father" differently.

Ribaldi lowered his eyes with a pained expression and said, "I don't deserve it, you know. Whatever you're seeing in me right now, it's God's way of showing favor to you, Derek.

Noticing the others staring at him, he added hastily, "Any strength or abilities I have, it's God's blessing, flowing out, blessing all of you. I'm glad to help, to do my part. But, it's not right, you see. To see me as a holy man. I proclaim a holy God's words - I'm just someone He had mercy on."

Derek quirked an eyebrow. "You can't be as bad as all that. You haven't met someone really bad - well, you have down here. But in comparison, you're not as bad as all that."

Ribaldi ran a hem of his simple robe through his fingers, asking aloud, "Aren't I worse, for hiding in a holy man's garment? I deserved my exile. For greed."

After a moment, Nathan commented, "I wasn't aware that was a crime."

"It is a sin," Ribaldi returned.

Ribaldi finally raised his eyes and met theirs, but he still hesitated. Warren flopped back to lie on the ground. Finally, Ribaldi spoke:

"Back on the surface, I ministered in a church in a small town. The town was quite proud of its beautiful little church. I was prouder. At some point, I forgot it was God's house and made it mine. People were no longer giving to God - they were giving to me. For the beautification of the church, we all said, and it did have such lovely decorations, to which I added extravagantly. It seemed wonderful at the time, you know - to be the one selected by God in charge of that place, smiled at and greeted politely wherever I went, and known to be so much more spiritual than others, such as our worldly mayor.

"Not that I wouldn't help the worldly. A town official came to me, a lost soul in need. Specifically, he needed an alibi: that we were praying together in the church. Naturally he would turn his life around and make a large donation if God would help him here. But the mayor was suspicious, and what's more, I didn't know that the church sexton had been fixing a squeaky pew in the sanctuary one evening when no one was around- the evening when the official and I swore we had been praying there. So we were caught in the lie, and I was punished with exile, and I deserve it."

Warren briefly dropped his affectations of disinterest to ask, "Why did you pick something so easily falsifiable?"

Ribaldi testily replied, "The real problem is that when the time came to take up arms against evil, I turned traitor. So many times I've rehearsed what I should've done. I should've counseled that official to confess, but I helped in a coverup instead. And the man of the flesh, the mayor, actually did his duty and prosecuted evil." He sighed and looked away, then added, "Getting thrown down here, though, it may be the best thing that ever happened to me. It reminded me of grace. God still has saved me, though I deserved condemnation. The church down here has helped me show my repentance by acting as a circuit rider, helping many cities - God through me. And now, I serve you lot, on these quests. Our gracious God still deigns to work through a traitor like me."

Warren asked, "So, we're good for you?"

Ribaldi shook his head as he contradicted, "No, I'm convinced you're bad influences on me. But it's still my job to serve you."

"I'd like some wine," Derek half-joked.

"I'll better serve you by not giving it to you now," Ribaldi half-joked back.

* * *

Author's Note: Spiderweb Software games don't involve graphic violence in the same sort of way I am portraying in this story. The point of it in this chapter was that the heroes of Avernum 1 faced a difficult and savage fight against a powerful, cruel opponent: Grah-Hoth.

Further, I don't actually recall Grah-Hoth's physical description in Avernum 1 at this point, so it may be only approximately correct.

Ribaldi is not a canonical character, just like Nathan, Warren, and Derek are not, and as Albert, Helen, Sschass, Frruh, and Captain Tompkins are not. Captain Tompkins, by the way, is one of the player characters for Exile 2 / Avernum 2 in this story.

I may be mistaken about the precise reasons why the portal is shut down if the disaster in the Tower of Magi has happened already, and whether someone does have to go through it even then for King Micah's reply.

Finally, as best I recall, in Exile 3/Avernum 3, Empress Prazac asks you to stop whoever is responsible for the monsters, but doesn't ask you to tell her who is responsible. Partly she is practical. It matters who is causing the plagues of monsters, but it matters less than stopping whoever is causing the plagues. The other reason is that I and most likely others have had playthroughs in which you actually don't yet know who is responsible for the monsters, because Spiderweb Software games allow some degree of nonlinearity. You can meet the Empress before defeating the golems and receiving the last piece of evidence of who made the monsters. In fact, I've had playthroughs in which I don't defeat the golems at all, because they're an optional quest. You can win by guessing at which of the suspects actually caused the monsters, or simply proceed without guessing to the final showdown that proves who is making the monsters and win there.


	16. Shatter

Icefall 35, 833 I. E.

16 Years after Albert's Exile

Under Keep of Tinraya, Secret Caves of Upper Avernum

Albert looked around at his friends. So this was it. The vahnati had trapped them in this cell, and they were going to die, alone, and monsters would roam all the surface.

Helen touched his arm, and he squeezed her hand. Albert looked in her eyes and saw she was gesturing with her other hand at Sschass. Forcing down an irritation that she hadn't originally been trying to comfort him, Albert did try to look at Sschass. Sschass was sitting slumped in a corner, fingers laced under his chin. Albert had thought he was sad, but Sschass looked worse.

It wasn't clear whether Sschass had noticed their perusal or not, but he announced to them all, "My humble apologies for my failure. I do not see how I can make this right, but I had at least to tell you that."

Helen put a hand on her hip, half-sympathetic, half-frustrated, saying, "Sschass, the vahnati captured us all. Either we're all responsible, or none of us are. But it can't just be you alone."

Sschass said morosely, "I trained to recognize and disarm traps, to be wary of ambushes. I went on so many missions of infiltrating strongholds like this one. Yet I couldn't help when we were captured."

Frruh stopped pacing and faced Sschass. "It's like Helen said. Don't be unreasonable. Why is it not my fault, since I trained for years at the Tower of Magi, and couldn't block the Crystal Souls? But they managed to teleport us here, and that's that."

A thin, quiet voice with an odd accent said, "Quietly, friends, and quickly. They may be scrying you even now."

They all started, Sschass leaping to his feet in surprise. Albert whirled his head around - it sounded like a vahnati accent, but it had sounded like it was in this cell.

It was a ghost. A vahnati ghost was in their cell. Oh great. They were going to die, just like this poor vahnati had in this cell-

"It's not a ghost, Albert," Frruh said, just over his shoulder, causing Albert to jump.

Albert gestured at the thing and said, "I didn't believe in them, either, but-"

Frruh said impatiently, "It's an image sent from another place, to talk to us."

As Albert deflated, the semi-transparent image said, "My name is Bon-Ihrno. Do you trust that name among the vahnati, after what you know my people have-doing? I hope it - so, hope so. But we have no time now."

Bon-Ihrno gestured to a wall. "I can send one of you out," he told them. "Go through an unseen door. Then, one among you should through a portal go. It is not strong enough to take all of you - and the others would notice that. The energy from many going."

Sschass quickly found the catch among the masonry, and when a section of stone swung away soundlessly, like a well-oiled door, they looked at the small, faint magical portal that was revealed.

"Quickly choose who go," Bon-Ihrno's image continued quietly. "Fight who you came to fight. But the last monster factory is not in this place. I shall guide you to my shelter. No warrior am I - only wisdom can I give you."

"That's quite enough, thank you," Albert said reverently, but the image was fading away as he said it, so it was hard to know if Bon-Ihrno heard it.

The four adventurers looked at each other and looked at the portal.

Helen advised Albert, "Better think fast."

Albert said, "Then I'd better think out loud. I want it to be someone with magic. But-"

Frruh finished, "But we'd be deadmeat if someone good with a blade did get close enough."

Sschass said seriously, "Albert, I want to volunteer for this."

Albert replied seriously, "There's nothing you need to atone for."

Sschass shrugged, "I'm trying to accept that. But I'm still the best choice. The vahnati left us our weapons -" he tapped his Black Halberd with a claw "-because it was easy to scoop us up with teleportation. Which means they also left me my lockpicks. I can sneak and fight my way through, and those basic healing spells Helen taught us all means I can patch myself up enough. I'll work out wherever this portal leads and how to get back to you. Then we'll be the ones taking the Crystal Souls by surprise."

Albert looked up at Sschass - not at the crest on his head, not the scales on his face that were much like those on the rest of his body, but in his inhuman eyes.

Albert nodded, and said, "You've got a point. But just to make sure," he pulled out a wand and gave it to Sschass. "I know you used up your last one."

"Thank you," Sschass said, carefully placing it in easy reach on an outer loop of his pack.

As he was doing so, Frruh went to his other side and filled up empty scroll tubes in his pack. "This one is healing," Frruh said, tapping the tubes so Sschass would know from the vibration and not need to take his attention away from the wand, "and this one is 'Lightning Spray'. I just hope you don't come across enough foes to need it." Sschass agreed, "Same here." He finished securing the wand and clapped him on the back.

Helen came forward, holding out a flask, saying, "I added some horseradish. Let me know if that helps with the taste."

"You remembered my joke?" Sschass said, taken aback.

"I thought it might at least distract from the bitterness," Helen smiled, her eyes starting to shine. "You won't be alone out there now."

Sschass took in a hissing breath, looked at them all, and said, "Not with everything I learned from my friends. I shall come to you as soon as I can."

* * *

Sschass did everything he could not to grunt as he was flung back against the wall. The vahnati had left some troublesome monsters to guard these halls. One of the smaller ones drew closer, holding its wounded arm back as its other trembled with eagerness for revenge.

Sschass whipped out Albert's wand and dispatched the monster. His other hand was slick with blood, but he rested the halberd against his shoulder, unstoppered Helen's potion and drank it, immediately feeling better. Another monster charged, and he dodged it. The beast's momentum carried it past him, and he dropped it from behind with his halberd. The big monster was about to howl in rage, but Sschass whipped out the 'Lightning Spray' scroll, killing it and another of the small monsters.

The two remaining monsters stared at him as he panted.

Sschass grinned. He had plenty more tricks up his sleeve, given to him over the years by comrades, his mentor, and his friends. He had to make it.

* * *

Albert took another lap of the cell at a slow pace. He did believe in Sschass, but even people trying their best weren't invincible. How long to wait before he sent someone else? Should they take a risk and rapidly go single-file, even if it did alert the vahnati?

At this point in his lap, his back was to the cell door, so he didn't hear Sschass until the key turned in the lock.

Frruh and Helen leapt to their feet as Albert whipped around. Everyone except Albert managed to stifle happy greetings as Sschass held a finger to his lips.

As they filed quickly out the door, Frruh pointed out, "We do still have a lot of vahnati to fight - please keep your voice down."

Sschass said softly, "Don't begrudge him all enthusiasm. We're together and free now."

Albert laughed aloud, drawing a further glare from Frruh, but Albert said (quietly, thankfully,) "I could take on them all. We've got Bon-Ihrno on our side, the one who helped Captain Tompkins and his men!"

Frruh groused, "The one friendly vahnati face in this place. Or more accurately, not in this place. He never claimed to be a great warrior, so he can't force his way in to physically help us."

"Nobody's perfect," Albert grinned. Frruh sighed heavily and shook his head, but his expression was different than it usually was - he knew Albert was joking.

Albert himself was savoring this elation. He knew it would end soon enough when he had turn his blade on the vahnati, the people who had brought him hope in the dark days of his childhood, after he lost Carl in the Empire War. Albert would have to shred the tale of his heroes, Captain Tompkins and his men, and Bon-Ihrno.

* * *

Mid-822 I. E.

5 Years after Albert's Exile, in the time of the Empire - Avernum War

Bon-Ihrno's Home, Vahnati Caves Below Avernum

Captain Tompkins looked at the house around him, at him and his squadmates sitting at ease in alien furniture, while their host, one of the beings called vahnati, served them tea. It was the last thing he'd expected after the wild ride down the dark river, and the horrors they'd had to fight.

Bon-Ihrno, continuing their conversation, explained, "From what I have scryed, your people, like ours, loathe kidnappers. Imagine, if you can, that someone were to kidnap a person who was both your grandfather and your king. The Empire captured three of our Crystal Souls, and I shudder to think what may have become of them."

Captain Tompkins moved his hand from his chin and said wearily, "And just like we can't yet tell the difference between factions among your people, you can't tell the difference between us and the Empire?"

"Exactly. Some among my people attacked you for that reason. Others because they are ancient rivals of my tribe." Bon-Ihrno took a sip. "I will speak to my people more and more. Your arrival has stirred interest, and my word carries weight. The others more will understand as they see you fight the Empire, and recover the Crystal Souls. Those of my tribe, at least."

The captain looked into his cup. They were already losing the war against the Empire; they couldn't afford a second front with the vahnati. The vahnati's assistance also might turn the tide against the Empire. But a mission that deep into enemy territory - even if it got approved, could they ever carry it off?

Tompkins looked up from his cup. Maybe his team would fail, but another could always be sent if that happened - the army didn't consist solely of his team. Avernum's honor had to be restored in the eyes of the vahnati. Besides, someone being imprisoned by the Empire - it was a sorrow Avernum was all too familiar with. Avernum chose either an impossible mission or a lingering death, and looking at the eyes of his squad, he knew what Avernum had chosen.

* * *

Two Weeks Later

Ornotha Ziggurat, Empire Fortress Occupying Avernite Lands

Captain Tompkins tried to contain his disappointment as he heard the click of a trap springing under the foot of one of his men. Then he heard a familiar hissing and whooshing of fire - but something about it was wrong.

The crimson flowers of flame were licking the wall, evidently from where the mechanism of the trap had been, but the flames were spreading too rapidly, and somehow burning even atop stone. The rest of his squad quickly backed away. "Quickfire!" Feinman muttered. "Is the Empire mad?"

"Run for it," Tompkins ordered quickly, and they did. He didn't have to order them to keep their eyes peeled for the Crystal Soul they were trying to find here - they were already doing it, even as they ran into the next room, quickfire already following them.

Iago spotted the case, and Renault opened it and wrested the Crystal Soul from inside there. Renault tried to say something comforting to it as he put it in the pouch at his waist, but the flames were only three feet from his heels and gaining fast.

"Feinman, haste us, and Iago, bless us with a shield," Tompkins ordered. Iago was really rather better at pronouncing judgment with curses for his enemies' misdeeds than blessing his friends, but they needed every advantage they could. Hasted and surrounded by a temporary, invisible shield, they ran through a gap - only to find themselves on the roof of the ziggurat, and fire following them.

"I guess you'll just have to set our broken legs, Iago," Feinman joked.

The Crystal Soul said panickedly to all their minds - "Madness - we will shatter-"

And they ran for it - right off the edge of the ziggurat. The Crystal Soul joined telepathically in their physical screams.

* * *

They survived that, partly because it was a ziggurat, rather than a sheer cliff. Perhaps the vahnati fighting the Empire on the plains below helped them with a far-flung spell to reduce their speed, or perhaps the Crystal Soul did as well.

As they returned to Olgai, the Crystal Soul said to Renault's mind, "I hadn't dared to believe it, but humans are not all of the Empire."

"No," he told it as he patted the hip pouch where it rested, "We're from the Avernite Army. Our squad is led by Captain Tompkins, up ahead, and that's Feinman and Iago behind us. My name is Renault."

"I am Caffren-Bok," the soul replied. He suddenly said urgently - "Others - there were others the Empire stole from the shrine-"

Renault broke in reassuringly, "We already rescued Jekknol-Bok. We'll do our best to find your other friend, too."

Feinman watched Renault with interest - he seemed to have such a way with the Crystal Souls. Renault had held the last one just because that was how it happened, but seeing his rapport with this one made him glad they'd decided beforehand that Renault would carry him, too.

"Vyvnas-Bok is his name," supplied Caffren-Bok, relieved. "My many thanks to you. Hope I had not dared to have, that there were differences among humans. That you were not all of this cruel, power-hungry Empire."

"Your captivity is over," Renault said calmly. "You're safe now. Avernum will ever be your friend."

* * *

Icefall 35, 833 I. E.

16 Years after Albert's Exile

Keep of Tinraya, Secret Caves of Upper Avernum

Albert and his friends faced a line of desperate, skilled, vahnati defenders, and behind them the crystal souls, blazing with the magic they were ready to unleash. Vyvnas-Bok and Caffren-Bok were calm and unyielding. The adventurers could hear Jekknol-Bok's thoughts jabbering in insane fury, as he pulsed in his crystal.

How Albert had longed for the chance to come face-to-face with those who had planned the destruction of the surface, and how he now longed to be anywhere else. But he had to see this through. Standing just out of razordisk range, he pulled out the crystal, the great weapon Avernum's Bunker had given him against the crystal souls, and held it high above his head.

There was a torrent of light that streamed out of the crystal and over the vahnati heads, and into the crystal souls, and weapon and soul shattered and fell, out of the hand and off the pedestals. The vahnati shrieked and keened in horror, then in rage, and in grief. One dropped his waveblade and fell to his knees, shouting at the ceiling. Another screamed in a way no human throat could, and launched herself in a berserk rage, casting razordisks at the party in almost random fashion, brandishing her waveblade as she came closer. A razordisk pinged off of Sschass' breastplate as he and Albert met her in battle, and other vahnati began to join the fray. Soul crystals were loosed from vahnati belts as the vahnati called out of them incredible monsters. Frruh launched an Arcane Blow at the foes, while Helen blessed the team.

She could see behind her attackers that two of the vahnati, with unnatural stillness and precision, were engaged in a futile effort to put the pieces of the crystal souls back together. Finally, one touched the other's forearm. They bowed their heads, keened one last time, then turned and drew their waveblades, running towards the fray.

Meanwhile, one of the other vahnati practically hurled himself onto Sschass' Black Halberd, then used a graceful waveblade as a crude hammer on Sschass' nearest mailed arm, which was holding the halberd. Albert fended off another vahnati's waveblade with his shield, then finished off Sschass' foe. His weapon again free, Sschass dispatched a vahnati who had just caught Albert a terrible blow, surely mortal were it not for his helmet. Albert picked himself up as Frruh rained lightning and Helen sent more ice into the vahnati's bodies. He forced himself to raise his shield, and more razordisks pinged off of it. Albert focused again, reentered the dance, fought to the unusual rhythm of waveblades and alien limbs, and cut his way through these former allies. When it was over, he saw Sschass throwing the last vahanti defender against the wall with his halberd, and she slid down it, staining the beautiful finish with her ruin. Her bulbous eyes drifted to the crystal shards, inches from her fingers, and then she never moved herself again.

They began to move towards the exit, but Helen turned back and took a deep breath.

"What is it?" Albert asked.

Sschass pointed out urgently, "We've won a great victory, but we haven't found the last vahnati factory; they're still making more monsters. And there could be more on their way here-"

"That's why the funeral benediction is short," Helen said without turning. "We living never have much time. We can't bury them, no, but I can at least do this for our erstwhile allies."

Sschass looked at Albert with a slithzerikai frown, but Albert had already bowed his head.

After the last words of the benediction finished ringing off of the walls, Helen moved quickly with the rest of them. Frruh asked her, "Do you really think they deserve to be at peace?"

Helen replied, "I wanted that for those poor souls, especially Jekknol-Bok. Since I learned what they have done, I have doubted whether they deserve anything but torment. Thankfully, the judgment is not mine to make."

* * *

Author's Note: Bon-Ihrno's dialogue in general, and especially between he and Captain Tompkins' squad (they are this story's version of the player characters in Avernum 2), is non-canonical, but hopefully in character. I don't quite recall the details of the Ornotha Ziggurat, so a lot may be non-canonical.

I don't quite recall how the party gets captured by Crystal Souls, so that part may be non-canonical. I'm fairly sure that it is because the Crystal Souls teleport you into a cell without disarming you that a lone character being sent through is practical. It's simpler and less risky for the vahnati, but it works to their disadvantage in that way.

I don't quite recall why there is a secret door in the cell wall, or why only one person can go through it, but I assume it was some reason like that given here.


	17. Non-Human Things

Same Day

Bon-Ihrno's Home in Exile, Secret Caves of Upper Avernum

Bon-Ihrno poured tea for human guests again; this was good. But what he had to say to them was far less pleasant than what he had to say to those humans back during the war.

Albert said, "Thank you for your help back there. I don't think we would've gotten out of that cell alive without you." When the vahnati had caught them, he had been sure they'd die in that cell - but no good thinking about that now. Bon-Ihrno had helped them escape, and they defeated the Crystal Souls and reached this remote home.

Bon-Ihrno told them, "You are welcome. My comrades shame us all. It had to be done. And more has to be done, which we should now discuss."

He honestly hadn't thought the Avernites would be able to defeat the Crystal Souls. Escape them, perhaps, but defeat them? But they had done so with assistance from Avernite mages, who made an artifact - mages who would not be here to help them with the next task.

Sschass asked thoughtfully, "Are there more like you? I ask a hard thing, to face your own people, but if you and others could help us in the last battle, it would be a great boon."

Bon-Ihrno's mouth stretched a bit and he finally said, "It has taken all my power of will to serve killers of Crystal Souls in this temporary abode. I do not trust myself with a blade near you."

"We would not ask you to go against your conscience," Sschass assured him, trying to tamp down his own annoyance. "And we are aware of your pain. Frruh, Albert, Helen, and I - we have all had to kill members of our people, servants of evil."

Perhaps it was a vahnati sigh Bon-Ihrno gave before continuing, "If you succeed, I must help my people change, and grieve, and from here, I can at least guard your rear. And from the rear, if vahnati come, they will only be foes.

"It is hard to put vahnati politics into your language. Suffice to say that my influence is far, far less than that of three Crystal Souls. And Rentar-Ihrno's successes in carrying out the Crystal Souls' desire for revenge gives her prestige greater than mine. Not all vahnati agree with them, no, but many do, and you will find those most devoted to the cause ahead of you. Losing the Crystal Souls -" he paused a moment, set down his cup, and continued more composedly - "losing them will make Rentar-Ihrno and the others fear you. But their hatred will become rigid."

Helen said quietly, "I feared that. This must've been years in the making, this plan, those factories. They can't abandon their revenge so easily."

Albert asked, "Do you know why? I mean, why they didn't tell Avernum?"

Bon-Ihrno tapped on the table, then said, "They suspected you would not approve. We do not understand your ways, as you do not understand ours. The limits you place on vengeance is not known fully to us. But we learned from your plans for the future with us; your willingness to partner with us to go to the surface, but never discussing finishing off the Empire - we knew you feared it, but we began to suspect it went further. And those who insisted on vengeance beyond the war knew they could not risk telling you - or risk me telling you. If I had not anticipated this and gone into hiding, I would've been killed soon after the war. I did what I could, but it was never enough, and now we are at this point."

He reached into a tube by his side and spread a scroll on the table, then gestured at the map depicted on it. "Here you see the last monster factory. It is located underneath Rentar-Ihrno's keep. She built it in secret, here in this part of what you call Upper Avernum, that we never told you about, and there are no passages to the caves with your forts. My people secretly teleported up themselves and materials for the keep, even as we helped you with the teleporter to the rest of Upper Avernum. Though you were able to break in this way, from the surface, the mountains will make it hard for the Empire to discover it or reach it unharried, and even if they reached it, the keep would be difficult to assault. Thankfully no one has been mad enough to bring children or aged to the keep - it is a place of work and war. It is heavily defended. Its only weakness is the machinery which makes the monsters. If you can reach the control panel, you can close off the tubes that channel magical materials throughout the factory - without turning off the flow of those materials. This should detonate the whole facility - but I do not know that you can escape in time."

They stared at him.

He reminded them, "You are asking me to aid you, who have destroyed Crystal Souls, and who have and will destroy more of our people."

Frruh purred - but it sounded somewhat odd to Albert- "Bon-Ihrno, I appreciate your aid to us in this heartbreaking situation. But surely there is some alternative to embarking on a suicide mission. Or is thinking of that beyond the help you can give to people who battle mass murderers?"

Helen shouted reproachfully, "Frruh!"

"I apologize, Helen, I shall make the accusation more directly-" Frruh yowled, springing to his feet. Albert's mail clinked as he also rose, shouting, "I'm with you, Frruh. For shame, Bon-Ihrno! Entire families incinerated by golem beams! Alien beasts wandering through ruined cities! And that's the best you've got to defeat that? A suicide mission! This is about more than your crystal souls!" Helen and Sschass began to shout over him, trying to calm him down.

Bon-Ihrno was still seated, but finally spoke in a loud voice, saying, "I understand you not talking over each other!" He took a deep breath and raised open hands. His louder voice now had a note of clear pleading. "Please understand! This language is still difficult for me. I mean -I meant- to say that I do not trust myself. I know my people are wrong, but even I trouble take - no, no, struggle, struggle to recall that, even this long after I learned of it. I do not trust my heart, my mind, to say that this is the best plan, but it is the best plan I have been able to make, with what I have been able to learn."

Albert took a deep breath, then said firmly, "That was harsh of me. I understand now. And we do appreciate what you're doing, really." He eyed Frruh, who finally replied, "You have spoken well, Bon-Ihrno, and dealt with us honorably. We will not fear a death with purpose, but will not take your counsel until we convince ourselves there is no other course."

He and Albert sat down together. After a long moment, Helen proposed, "I was wondering - why don't we - my apologies, Bon-Ihrno, but why don't we kill Rentar-Ihrno and the other vahnati who still are working on the plan? Maybe some will even surrender."

Bon-Ihrno took a long sip of tea, then finally said, "I did not believe the heroes of Avernum who visited me in the war could kill Garzahd, the great mage of the Empire. Yet they did. Still, it was a fierce battle. You face a task of similar magnitude infiltrating Rentar-Ihrno's keep, let alone defeating her. And unless I miss my guess, you have no secret weapons to counter a live vahnati, as you did for Crystal Souls. Finally, the machines there may be capable of producing monsters even if no one runs them, until they finally fall apart. I know of no safe way for anyone to destroy or disarm them - the raw materials are very dangerous. How many more monsters will be made if you do not do this? Who will risk his life to destroy the machines if you don't?"

After a moment, Frruh confirmed, "Then if there is no other course, our course lies that way."

Excusing himself, Albert stepped outside the hut. For a few moments, he could busy himself adjusting the straps on his mail or surveying the rest of the cavern for edible or useful fungi, but soon he only had his thoughts to occupy himself.

"Now I know you won't like this, Albert," Helen started as she left the hut, "because I don't like it myself. But it's possible the Empire will give us some sort of help."

He looked at her.

She shrugged, "I'm not counting on it, either, but they do have an interest in our success."

"True," he allowed.

A moment later, he told her, "Weird, huh? Plenty of times I thought I'd die, up here, or down in Avernum. But I knew even if I had to give up on my dreams about a life on the surface, at least I'd be ensuring Sschass or Frruh or you would get to go on living, and someday the rest of Avernum would live there. Marching to my own death, though - it's different from knowing an enemy maybe will take my life by force."

Helen asked, "So, the difference between having your life stolen, and having to lay it down?"

"Yeah," Albert agreed. "I mean, I know I should lay it down, for the faith, for my friends. But I don't wanna. But I should."

With a slight smile, she said, "And I've been very glad of that. Wanting to live is usually a good thing. It's something I like about you. Rather basic, but good. I don't want to die, either. But this really looks like the only way. If there's another, tell me, I'll take it, and I'll drag all of you along it if I can, and if I miss it, you drag me on it. But if this is where we must be sacrificed - we've got to do it, or we'll be sacrificing something else."

He looked her in the eye. "I wanted to ask you, you know. If you wanted to be part of that dream where I start a farm and a family on the surface."

"Can you maybe actually ask?" she asked, a little piqued and somewhat happy.

"Will you be part of that dream, Helen?" he asked. "Will you marry me? You know, if we don't die?"

"Yes," she said, clutching him, "even though I really don't want to die now."

Frruh emerged from the hut with Sschass just in time to hear it all, and he complained to Albert, "Your timing is terrible." Albert muttered in Helen's ear, "Apparently," and she whispered back amusedly, "Definitely." Meanwhile, Frruh was saying, "We need to be resigned to death there."

"We don't know that," Albert retorted. "And I like to think we'll do this better, even if we perish, if we have hope."

"You're probably right," Frruh agreed, while motioning a shrugging "Humans!" to Sschass. Sschass sighed in resignation at Frruh's obstinacy while Albert complained, "I saw that!"

Sschass put a hand on Frruh's shoulder and said, "Come on, Frruh, it's time we settled up." They put their heads together. Albert and Helen looked on curiously, catching only occasional phrases: "-that was two weeks in, I was sure of it!" "-oh, that doesn't count-" "-far beyond original timeframe-" "-just call it even-" "Fine!" Then they shook hands, looked at the blissful, baffled humans, and smiled.

"What's going on?" Helen asked, curious.

"Non-human things," Sschass said simply.

"What sort of non-human things?" Helen pressed.

"They wouldn't be non-human things if we told you," Frruh pointed out.

"Now you're giving me another reason I want to live, Frruh," she warned him. "Why can't you two tell us?"

"Life is full of disappointments," Sschass mused aloud.

Helen looked at Albert significantly.

"What?" he asked.

She tried to make her facial expression show more clearly that she was looking at him significantly.

For perhaps the first and last time in the rest of their lives, he actually caught her meaning from this, and replied, "If they were going to tell us, they'd have told us!"

"I'll have to figure this out myself," she said aloud.

* * *

Author's Note: It's been awhile since I've seen Bon-Ihrno in any Avernum game, so he may be OOC (out of character) here. Hopefully he was at least as interesting as he is in the game.

Also, the vahnati, especially Rentar-Ihrno's faction, may be slightly out of character, but I think I'm at least very close. I mention the possibility because it's my interpretation of what we're told of them, their culture, and their motives.

Further, the Empire may've made a more firm offer of assistance to the adventurers in particular, as well as Avernum as a whole, but I don't remember it, and this way kept with the characterization and conflicts I was using.

Finally, it's been awhile since I've played through the Ornotha Ziggurat, so I don't recall how you survive that adventure.


	18. Last Factory

Frost 1, 833 I. E.

16 Years after Albert's Exile

Keep of Rentar-Ihrno, Secret Caves of Upper Avernum

Albert, Sschass, Helen, and Frruh entered the doors of the great hall, weapons ready. The other vahnati had been defeated, the magical machinery primed for destruction. But the final controls they needed to activate were in this room. They had to finish the mission, and prepare for their own destruction.

Rentar-Ihrno was waiting for them in the center of the enormous hall. Albert didn't often get to see Frruh when he was about to fling powerful magic, since Albert was usually at the lead with Sschass, but he'd seen Frruh's hands glow with contained power during practice. Rentar-Ihrno's hands were glowing a different shade as she prepared magic that was already raising Albert's hackles.

Rentar-Ihrno called out, "If you had closed your eyes, Avernites, you would've been the empire ruling all the surface. How much you destroyed for the sake of wicked men who exiled you!"

Albert's gut twisted - not from doubt, but from horror. Avernum would've become the Empire if they hadn't made this stand.

Helen called back, "How many would've lived if you hadn't manufactured murder?"

How he loved her! But how would they make her words bear fruit? Albert had no better plan than their original.

So, together, the Avernites charged Rentar-Ihrno - but soon stopped in shock as the medallion Erika had given them began to glow, and the archmage herself teleported ahead of them, a short distance from Rentar-Ihrno.

Erika fixed a grim smile on Rentar-Ihrno. Then the incantatrixes began to throw at each other some of the most potent magic ever seen. The flashes and blasts of heat, ice, lightning, and acid, sprayed over the hall. Frruh hoped that Erika, at least, was trying to shield them, or at least not get them caught in the worst blasts. Between the ferocity of the mages' duel, and the hordes of powerful creatures both combatants summoned in short order, the massive hall was soon filled with perils of one sort or another.

"This way!" Albert shouted, waving his hand in a chopping motion. They started running forward, but found a pack of cave widow spiders were cutting across their path. Thankfully, they were among Erika's summons, and were concentrating on an eyebeast Rentar-Ihrno had called out of a soul crystal. Still, a course change was necessary, and there were few places to go.

"This way!" Albert called again, pointing in a different direction.

Helen looked with concern at a rearing, twenty-foot worm, covered in six-inch spikes, that would be bearing down on them if they chose that path. "Are you sure that spinebeast is one of Erika's?" she called as they started running.

"No! Wish they wore uniforms!" Albert shouted.

Frruh threw a fireball ahead to clear their path, and did manage to obliterate some of the ursagi ahead of them which Rentar-Ihrno had summoned. Albert parried one blow of a naga, but the Radiant Shield from Helen and Pachtar's Plate Mail had to take the brunt of the second. Albert and Sschass finished the naga off together, and Helen cast Divine Retribution, slaying chitrachs following them. Albert charged at the next summons between them and the control pedestal, but Sschass shouted, "We can't afford to stop!"

Albert looked back and saw that they were just beyond Erika and Rentar-Ihrno, both enclosed in powerful magical shields and throwing every spell in the book at each other. Their summons were now a mighty throng filling nearly the whole hall, their melee spilling between the adventurers and the control panel. The menagerie milled, writhed, and charged, a stormy sea of flesh, fangs, ice, hair, scales, fire, and tattered bones, all howling and frothing together. The sheer magical energy being thrown by the incantatrixes at each other was making hair stand on end, and the monsters were among the mightiest the band had ever seen. Whenever one fell, the mages summoned more to replace them. The adventurers would never make it through the last half of the hall if they fought the summons, or even defended themselves.

The adventurers quaffed hasting potions, Helen shielded them as best she could, and they ran for the lives of every surface dweller, and every Avernite who hoped to ever live there. Punishing blows rained down on their armor, and they abruptly changed direction to avoid friend and foe alike, as a hundred melees erupted and concluded around them. They dove under the claws of drakes, hurriedly edged past the tails of wolves as big as them, and friendly only because Erika had happened to summon them, then veered away from a barbaric contest between ogres and rakshasa - who fought for whom in that gorefest was totally unclear.

But at last, they gained the console -and Albert boggled at it. "I can't believe it, it's not going to work," his lips said of almost their own accord.

"What does it say?" Sschass asked concernedly, as he tossed a javelin at an ur-basilisk whose stare was clearly unfriendly.

"It's controls for the factory's magical goo, all right, but I don't have time to figure out how to destroy the system from here. I'll just have to smash the console," Albert said urgently.

"Wait, I almost have it!" Frruh shouted from over Albert's shoulder.

"I'll give you as long as I can!" Albert told him in passing, hurrying in front of the console to help Sschass fend off a wight.

Helen cast another bolt of ice, though she nearly collapsed and began to retch. When she regained control, she hurriedly unstoppered a restorative potion and quaffed it, and with her renewed energy had to immediately heal the whole party.

Frruh punched some buttons, and they thought they heard a rumble above the chaos of combat.

Rentar-Ihrno flung a powerful but small and concentrated bolt at the ceiling of the keep. It burned through the ceiling, then after a moment, there was a low growl of stone melting, and then a single shaft of light from the surface fell on Erika.

A pile of ashes crumpled to the floor where she had been standing. All but Frruh, who hadn't seen, covered their eyes - both the light and the Empire's fiery curse devouring Erika's body had stabbed into them. Frruh looked up to see Rentar-Ihrno turn her gaze on them.

Then there was a rumble and a series of explosions from far off. Rentar-Ihrno shouted something in vahnati that was clearly angry. A moment later, she had teleported away.

Sschass cursed in slithzerikai, but it was no small thing to have foiled her plans.

Helen turned to Frruh. "Brilliant!"

Frruh said sadly, "It was good knowing you all."

"At least we'll be with friends," Sschass said, and though no one was sure who reached first, they all joined hands in a circle.

"So now we just need to trust the Empire, huh?" Albert joked as the ground shook with nearing explosions.

A moment later, they were teleported into the Empress' throne room in Blackcrag Fortress.

Frruh took a slight step back from the surprise, and the vertiginous effects of teleportation. The empress' mage who had just teleported them still had hanging in midair a scrying of what was going on in the great hall of Rentar-Ihrno's Keep - a large explosion, then patches of fire and collapsing masonry.

Sschass and his friends breathed heavily as they looked up at the dais where the empress sat. She stared down at them a moment before saying, "Well done, Albert, Helen, Sschass, and Frruh. The deal is fulfilled. The land described in the treaty is now Avernum's."

Albert looked between the mage and the empress and said through labored breathing, "Thank you."

Empress Prazac replied, "On behalf of every living thing on the surface, thank you."

* * *

Author's Note: The dialogue I basically made up, because I don't recall much, and similarly for the specifics of the fight (did Erika and Rentar-Ihrno encase themselves in powerful magical shields?) but the basics of Erika's death are right.

I hope I am remembering that Radiant Shield could be cast on anyone, but it may only work on the caster.

It may be an exaggeration that you couldn't possibly get through all the summons if you stopped to fight them - but there were an awful lot, and they were tough, and they weren't your objective anyway.


	19. Leaving the Caves

Evermoon 8, 817 I. E.

2 Years after Albert's Exile

Avernum's Last Unblocked Exit to the Surface

Warren was crowding Nathan and Derek. Derek whispered to him, "Get back in formation, fool! We don't know what's ahead!"

"Oh, we do," Warren said, face enraptured. "We still recognize it, all of us. Even after all this time. Even so far away. That's daylight. Oh, a long way off, still. But it's there."

He laughed aloud. "So much better than I could've hoped! It's not too horrible a slope uphill. It's doable. Let's pick up the pace!"

"Wait," Nathan said suddenly. "We aren't going up there, Warren."

Warren turned on him as though he were the crazy one.

"At a minimum, we owe it to Erika and Rogow to tell them about this. Maybe the ordinary folks, too!" Nathan insisted.

Warren asked pointedly, "And then we're coming back, to go through ourselves, right?"

Nathan took a deep breath, looked Warren in the eyes, and said, "Whoever wants to is coming back to go through the exit."

Everyone seemed to be saying something at once after that, a lot of yammering about the group disbanding and who had said what about when that they were going through the exit or not going through it, and how likely anyone had thought ever finding an exit was at the time they said that.

Abruptly, Nathan roared, "Quiet!"

Collecting himself in the silence, Nathan said more calmly, "We all know that at least Warren wants to go through the exit. So, yes, this does mean disbanding the group." Ribaldi sighed in exasperation. Nathan turned to him and said, "I'm more upset than I expected, Ribaldi. But this had to end sometime. It's my fault for not making us face this earlier. For not planning who and when. But here we are, and we haven't drawn any monsters yet with this racket. So we're planning it now."

Derek put in, "You can't be around Warren and not have realized this moment was coming. I'm just surprised we're arguing about it."

Warren jumped in, "I'm surprised you aren't all trying to come with me. You've seen this place. The kind of life we have to live? And you want to stay?"

Derek pointed out, "The wine is (expletive deleted), the company dismal, but there is something kinda nice about being able to do things with your own two hands. No worrying about the Empire's tale-bearers down here. No bowing and scraping to toadies. Dignity. Respect. You know, we've even made a name for ourselves down here. We're doing alright."

Warren waved angrily at the end of the tunnel and exclaimed, "The sun is right there!"

Ribaldi commented, "And I miss it, Warren. The surface has a lot to offer. But can we claim it? Just where will we be coming up there? The Empire rules everywhere. If we're caught, they will kill us rather than send us back here. We ruled out the surface when we killed Hawthorne. We'd be struggling through life as brigands on some deserted hillside. The sun is worth a lot, but not starving, or being killed. It's not worth preying on travelers."

Warren reminded them with entreaties, "Light. Wind. Rain. Snow. All of it, just waiting for us. We can do anything, I know we can. And the Empire does rule all, but there's plenty of places it's only sparsely settled. Very few up there know our faces. We can blend in with the crowds, buy passage to Valorim, and start new lives yet again among the settlers there."

Nathan spoke, "I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss those things, or want those things, Warren. But there's beauty here, too. It's hard and uncomfortable. There are monsters. But there's monsters on the surface - not as bad, but there are. And here we're free, and we have a purpose, and our mistakes are in our past. Up there - even without what we did to Hawthorne, we're all still criminals. Our pasts still dominate any life up there, not our futures. Even if we did make anything worthwhile up there, we'd still be living under the tyranny of whoever takes the throne next. Down here, we've got people worth fighting for, from throne room to barroom. I'm done with armies, but I can still do something to protect these people. It's not an obligation, and I'll die or get too old for it someday. But after all these years down here, I've come to love this land. I'll help any who want to escape it, too, but I want to spend the rest of my life here. Even if it's short."

Warren exhaled. "That's it, then. We've all said our piece. And I don't think any of us are really surprised, like you said, Derek." He looked at them all. "But even if people are interested in escaping, you'll need lots of time before we can come back here. All the way back to the Abyss to talk to Rogow, and then sailing all the way to Erika, if you really think she'll feel obligated to reward us for the information. And then, once you finally get back to Avernum, you'll need to get a caravan together to make the trip through the wilds on the way here worthwhile, and pay proper guards. And I'm not even sure how you're getting a caravan through the fire barriers the Empire set up behind us, but that's another issue. I'm trying to say that I want to go now. Life is short. I want to die on the surface."

Ribaldi urged, "Nathan, say something to him. I don't like to admit it, but we need each other, each one of us. Besides, it won't be that long before we come back."

Derek cautioned, "Ribaldi, what if most people respond like we did? Or they're too scared of the dangers? If I had kids, I wouldn't take 'em through what we had to go through to get here, caravan or not. And once we get back to town, and if no one wants to go, why would we want to walk all the way out here just to see Warren off? Why tie Warren down all that time? I'll miss you, brother," he looked at Warren, "but we all know where we're at."

Nathan extended his hand to Warren. "Then it ends here." As Warren took it, Nathan said, "We don't want to do this ourselves, but I think all of us see the appeal. And we definitely wish you the best."

"I thought I hated everyone," Warren replied as he shook hands with everyone, "but it seems I don't hate any of you as much as I thought."

"You'll do all right, Warren," Derek smiled.

Ribaldi huffed, "If you watch that tongue, you will. Go with God, my son."

Warren waved to them, then turned and faced the light and walked up the incline.

Nathan plodded after him automatically for a few moments, then he stopped himself. He called up, after a moment, "Welcome us if we ever come to visit you!"

"Right," Warren returned. "And the same for me!" They heard him chuckle. "We're crazy, aren't we?"

Ribaldi called, "Of course!"

Derek shouted, "We are Avernites, after all!"

Everyone's laughter carried through the passage.

As they walked away, Nathan looked at Ribaldi, then said, "If you want to go now, too -"

Ribaldi shook his head and waved him off. "No, no, my son. True, I was praying about joining a caravan to the surface, should we manage to get them to the exit. But God revealed that I'm to stick with you lot, and that I'm not to see the surface. But enough of that! No more plans on heavy hearts and empty stomachs!"

"Right, we gotta get through that fire barrier again," Derek sighed, rubbing at some singed hair and reassuringly thwacking Father Ribaldi on the shoulder.

They continued striding back towards Avernum together.

* * *

13 Years Later

Sulfras' New Lair, Surface

Albert was turning to leave their audience with Sulfras. The dragons had fashioned a weapon for fighting the alien beasts, but only after putting them through quite a bit of danger. His tired body was ready to get a safe distance away and make camp. Albert was surprised to see Sschass step towards the dragon and request, "Wise Sulfras, may I ask another question?"

The dragon may or may not have been surprised - she had been watching them all carefully - either way, she inclined her head wordlessly.

"In my hometown, there are tales that you once guarded the exit to the surface," Sschass began.

Sulfras broke in, "I chose a lair with one of the best secondary doors imaginable; always wise to have more than one. Rather offputting that the Empire filled it up at the start of the war. Continue."

Sschass was only slightly off-balance from the interruption, and did continue, "I see. It is said that the Tamers of Avernum paid you tribute so that they could pass, and that they even brought other Avernites through. Is this true?"

"The Tamers of Avernum?" Sulfras inquired. "Oh, yes, you mean that bunch, don't you. I thought you meant the ones who rescued the Crystal Souls for a moment. Why does this mean that much to you?"

"I wished to know if there were any who were able to make a life on the surface, like you and your siblings, like many in Avernum hope to," Sschass answered, "and I wish to learn if the Tamers were honorable enough to share their fortunate escape." He looked briefly at Albert and Helen, to be sure he had their interest, and he did.

Sulfras looked towards the ceiling, collecting her thoughts, then said, "Yes, they did. It was almost not worth those artifacts they gave me, having wagons and smelly humans and their disgusting mushroom meal bread, and all that ruckus, going throughout my lair. I told them; I really was going to eat those children if they touched my scrolls. But it was only one caravan in the end, so I didn't get a chance to demand further payment. Never saw any families come back from the surface, so I assumed they found their measure of happiness. Possibly death. But they earned the respect of a dragon, I'll tell you that. When my siblings and I debated coming up here, I said, 'If that rag-tag bunch of scrawny humans challenged the Empire for a piece of their land and managed it, then we dragons can do a lot better.'" She puffed out a bit of smoke from her nostrils and narrowed her eyes, relishing the memory of her eloquence.

"Well said," Sschass told her, grinning at Albert and Helen. Albert made a face back at him while Helen put her hands on her hips, but she had a grudging smile as well. Maybe Sschass and Frruh were right; maybe the Tamers weren't quite as bad as she had thought.

* * *

Frost 18, 833 I. E.

16 Years after Albert's Exile

Fort Emergence, Upper Avernum

After Albert and his friends had helped to destroy the last monster factory, life was like a dream. It was like a dream in that all sorts of people marveled at their achievements, and royally honored them. It was also like a dream in that time sped up. Important events and galas popped up out of nowhere, then suddenly receded into the past. Somewhere in all of that, they traveled the length of Valorim, back to Upper Avernum, for yet another round of feasts.

Then, all of a sudden, the feasts were over again, the last one concluding one evening in Fort Emergence. Albert and his friends gathered in the dining hall on the next morning, like they always did whenever they returned to the fort. But after all that had happened, it wasn't like it always was.

The ceremonies were over, the awards had been given. The mission was finished. This was a moment the adventurers hadn't realized was coming, but now seemed inevitable. They had their pick of missions in the Avernum Adventurer Corps, they could return to Avernum, or they had the whole of Valorim to explore, separately or together. But their hearts had not yet settled on a course. The realization that this might be the last time any of them traveled together weighed on them that breakfast.

Sschass looked at each of them and finally said, "I've known what I've wanted all my life. Why do I now feel torn?"

Helen inquired with concern, "Where do you think you can do the most good?"

Sschass gave a long, whistling hiss. "That is just what I thought I knew. I can fight. I can drive back the monsters of Avernum. Eventually, I hoped to slay the last of the wicked slithzerikai. My comrades and I would liberate Lost Bahisskava, kneel before the door to our ancient homeland, and humbly ask our brethren to take us back.

"But now I know how much good I can do here. On the surface, or in Avernum in general. And I know that Avernum has to look after itself, and this new beginning on the surface, before it can afford the long campaign to Bahisskava. My generation may not be the one to return."

Frruh pointed out, "Naturally you'd want to go back to your homeland. But would the descendants of those who cast you out be willing to take you back? I thought you'd say you would open the door back to your homeland."

Helen frowned at Frruh, but Sschass returned gently, "My ancestors were exiled for a reason. Opening the door on our own, however good our intentions, would be an invasion. But I have to admit, being part of your return to the surface made me wonder. The Empire practically forgot about all of us in the midst of its problems. Perhaps the slithzerikai beyond the door have forgotten about us. The tales tell of no locks to be picked or ways to force the door open, and they may have filled it with rubble beyond, so it cannot open. But maybe they are willing to forgive." He looked thoughtfully at Albert and Helen, then added, "Your success at homecoming has filled me with desire anew, while at the same time showing me it may be quite different from how I thought it would be."

* * *

Epilogue

When the first records were written about the Shields of the Surface, they told the reader that the rest of their lives were happy, although not nearly as happy as they deserved.

Albert and Helen were married in Lower Avernum, and they and their children were among the settlers who founded one of the first villages in the surface land Empress Prazac granted to Avernum. They lived happily, and for a good span, but the land of Krizsan, beautiful and fruitful, was yet wild. The couple fell before their time, guarding their village from a raid of all-too-normal monsters, but their sacrifice allowed their now-grown children and other villagers to finish the battle with no further loss of life.

Sschass explored the surface for some years, but eventually returned to his hometown of Gnass. Finding youth of the slithzerikai, humans, and nephilim were drawn to him because of the legends about him and his friends, he founded a training camp to develop skills in warfare, skills that Avernum would still have need of for many years. Sschass and his spawn were remembered for many daring deeds in the scrolls of Gnass and of Avernum.

Frruh and his faithful horse Rover sometimes journeyed with Sschass, and sometimes visited Albert and Helen, but after the Tower of Magi was re-established, he was most often found there. Frruh was always on uneasy terms with the leaders of the Tower. Students, however, frequented the large table he and his mate set, and his hearth was commonly said to be the only warmth in the whole tower. Though Frruh lived a long and happy life, his last years were marked with pain, as cave fungi invaded his lungs, weakened in the Tower of Magi's disaster. Frruh's daughter, Marow, more often known as the Midnight Archer, was among the most distinguished graduates of Sschass' camp, and Frruh's students also performed many feats remembered in verse.

* * *

Author's Note: If I didn't mention it before, I was inspired by the Avernum fanfiction series "Seeking the Light of the Sun" by Zizak-Tel. This chapter probably shows the most influence from Zizak-Tel upon the story and characters, in my opinion (not counting the fact that they cover the same fandom!) I considered whether Nathan, Warren, Derek, and Ribaldi would go to the surface, or whether they would someday do it, and settled on this ending based on the characterizations I had given them.

There's a lot I don't remember about the surface exit, so I made large portions up.

Sulfras may be rather out of character; I characterized her as I did just for fun. I don't think she's enormously out of character, though. I don't recall if you actually have to go through her lair to get to the exit (a passage on the way to the exit may just be nearby her lair), and remember few of the details, so I don't know if it would ever be practical to get a caravan through, given the traps the Empire set to guard the exit - but with enough motivation, people have a surprising ability to overcome static obstacles.

Cave fungi invading the lungs may or may not be a disease faced by non-player characters in Avernum; I can't quite recall now.

I'm glad you joined me on these journeys in Avernum. Many things in the Avernum stories were not mentioned in these tales, such as the Anama, many of the artifacts or side quests or characters, or interesting things you can do like buying a house on the surface. These were just a few threads from Jeff Vogel's excellent design that I wove together, somewhat modeled after my own adventures in his worlds. If you're interested in seeing the unmentioned threads, or if you would've preferred different endings or characters, I recommend you check out Spiderweb Software and go on your own adventures in Avernum.


End file.
